Dear Mr. Christie,
We are oh so not ready for National Health Insurance! I will admit it will do one significant thing for we long-suffering Bahamians; it will, dramatically, increase the number of patients waiting to see a doctor together with the huge increase in time wasted waiting to see that doctor! But of course I am forgetting that from your ivory tower you, sir, have absolutely no comprehension of what the Bahamian man in the street has to suffer when he wants anything more comprehensive than a band aid on a cut finger!
What is required NOW, sir, is a complete overhaul of the pitiful health-care service (sic) we have to endure presently. For example it might be a good idea for the doctor to actually arrive on time, that is assuming he actually arrives at all! Or, how about encouraging nurses to curb their bad temper, this last is also a requirement of the administrative staff specifically those who work in the various clinics both in the hospital and in the various outside locations; these staff also need to keep waiting patients advised of delays etc. I must state that the foregoing does not apply to all doctors and nurses, there are a goodly number of conscientious, caring and helpful doctors and nurses, but, unfortunately the good tend to be overshadowed by the mediocre to bad.
Allow me to give you my own personal recent experiences. In April 2014 the doctor at Carmichael Road Clinic suggested I should have a prostate examination and gave me the necessary paperwork and I duly went along to the urology clinic in the PMH. A day and time was set and I presented myself for the exam. Having arrived at the surgery the doctor, after discussions with the nurses, advised me that the “machine” was not working and he, the doctor, would call me when it was repaired. May 2015 I was still waiting for that call – to be brutally honest I had forgotten about it by last June. In fact my wife reminded me about this test in April this year and I reluctantly dragged myself back to the urology clinic this past Monday at 10:00am, by 2:30pm I was, to say the least, a “little hot under the collar” and when I heard two other prostate patients talking and one said that the doctor was not now coming that day I felt it might be politic to leave before the wrong things were said. By the time I had calmed down I went back to the clinic and looked for the relevant nurse. When I found her she had no idea her doctor was not coming any more, he had not even bothered to advise her!
Mr. Christie what sort of fairground are you and Dr. Gomez running?
Yours,
Harry Strachan
