After 20 years of Gonsalves’ promises to fix our health system, things have not improved. The system has not only been neglected, but it’s also gotten worse.
I was absolutely shocked to see the footage of a mother delivering her baby on the floor upon arrival at the triage section of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital. We must reflect on how we got to the point where our hospitals are so poorly equipped that a woman in labour struggled to get help from overstretched nurses, had to give birth on the floor, and was left alone after that.
For those who have not seen the recent video, which went viral on social media, it shows the mother, a pool of blood on the floor between her legs and the cut umbilical cord hanging from her, as the baby’s head had fallen on the floor. The video is highly distressing and mothers have been appalled at the how the matter has been handled.
The issue is currently undergoing investigation but the poor conditions of our health system is hardly an unfamiliar story.
Overstretched nurses apparently refused to see her because they did not know her COVID status. This is just the most recent example of how our overstretched nurses, dealing with COVID and the eruption of La Soufriere are now under more pressure as other equipped hospitals are closed because of poor choices by Ralph.
Our nurses, who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic, work in conditions that are not just unsafe, but wholly unhygienic and utterly disgraceful. Take for example the report from a few weeks ago in Searchlight, which highlighted that security is so lax that staff’s belongings have gone missing and many of the nurses do not feel safe when working nights shifts. Or even more terrifying is the story of a nurse being held at gunpoint. Our own medical staff are working in conditions that wouldn’t make anyone feel safe.
Then there’s the issue of hygiene, arguably the most important element in a hospital. Not only have our nurses and healthcare workers had poor access to PPE throughout the pandemic, stray animals often wander in and out of the hospital. The place where our sick and vulnerable go for treatment and recuperation is akin to the farmyard.
Now, in the midst of a global pandemic and the La Soufriere eruption, Milton Cato is now effectively our only option for serious healthcare. The construction of the hospital in Georgetown represents one of the most incompetent decisions made by the Gonsalves Government. Ralph’s partisan approach to look after his own constituents has been at the expense of the nation, for he willfully ignored the fact that the hospital lies in the danger zone of an active volcano. This fact had been repeatedly made to him when it was first proposed, including by the opposition, but he had dismissed the caution. For, as we all know, “Ralph knows best.”
The evacuation of the Smart Hospital, which was ironically said to be built to withstand natural disasters, represents what is fundamentally wrong with our healthcare system. It has been the political plaything of Gonsalves for 20 years.
Now the already overstretched staff in the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital have to put up with further pressure because the Gonsalves Government refused to listen. We should never accept a healthcare system that is the plaything of the Gonsalves family.
Our hospitals have been tested to breaking point this past year and it is blindingly obvious that they have been unable to cope. There is nobody else to blame other than the Government. They have had 20 years to fix it, but it is going backwards, fast. What is needed is proper investment, we must fix the literal holes in Milton Cato and build facilities that can support everyone, especially during a national crisis.
It’s time for the Gonsalves Government to wake up to the challenges that face them. They must stop ignoring obvious problems and passing them off as political attacks.
This past year has shown us that healthcare is too important to be just a political issue. The only way we will prevent more horrific incidents like a baby being born on a floor in a pool of blood. Our doctors and nurses deserve so much better than this and we, as people, deserve so much better than this.