Government has its priorities wrong when it comes to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) says Senator Andre Worrell, who is also the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) spokesman on health.
Worrell was speaking on Sunday night at Rock Dundo, St James where the DLP was holding a political meeting in support of Felicia Dujon. She is its candidate in the upcoming May 21 by-election in the constituency following last month’s resignation of Edmund Hinkson of the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP).
“When they should be spending money to buy medication for the hospital they’re spending money on public relations and a communication consultant. The Government has its priorities wrong, when the hospital should be spending money to buy medication and supplies to run tests they’re spending the money on PR, they’re spending the money on billboards and advertising the 60th anniversary of the hospital and when you go to the hospital for service you are told that the clinic is not operating today or you can’t get this test done because you don’t have this reagent,” he said.
Worrell said he had seen in the newspaper people commenting on a survey done at the QEH with 98 per cent of the persons saying they were satisfied with the service at the hospital.
“Does that sound like the Queen Elizabeth Hospital that you know about? Does that sound like the Queen Elizabeth Hospital that you or any of your family members went into in recent times? Does that sound
like the Queen Elizabeth Hospital that you have to wait four or five days in accident and emergency before you are admitted onto a ward? Does that sound like the Queen Elizabeth Hospital that have some people waiting for six months or more just to get a CAT scan or MRI or even to get an operation? How could 98 per cent of the people surveyed say that they are satisfied?” he asked.
Worrell said the pathology lab in the hospital was closed for nearly two months or three months and there is an infection in the wards of the hospital which could be causing a number of people, who have minor operations in the hospital return for treatment afterwards.
“They should be spending money to clean the air-conditioning ducts in the wards at the hospital, they should be spending money to properly sterilise the hospital. They should be spending money to fix all of the environmental issues within the hospital so that every week you don’t have a different section closing down,” he said.
Worrell also questioned the absence of his Senate colleague, The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott who is the Minister of Health and Wellness, stating that he does not speak on the health issues.
The BLP, he said, was showing that it is not willing to address any of the problems.
