An Independent Senator on the one hand praised the country for steps being taken to open a new state-of-the-art geriatric hospital, but on the other hand he has put the country’s lone public tertiary care hospital in the hot seat for below par service.
he was chucked somewhere in a corridor in that area. It was hot and the poor nurses, they work really hard
Senator Reverend John Rogers told the Upper House during today’s sitting of Senate, “I still have to raise some concerns about our primary care facility in this country. There are too many complaints about what is happening at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.”
Making remarks as the Appropriation Bill, 2023, debate continued, he said, the service and standard of care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has been found lacking in some regards.
I think we are much better than that
Acknowledging that his experience may not be the norm, he said that it should not happen at all if standards are raised and more is done for the facility.
“I know it is the period of COVID still. I had to visit there, the new Accident and Emergency, one evening around 4 pm, I had just left there and I went there to see someone; I almost collapsed from the heat of that place. It is extremely hot in the waiting area. And we’re using a part of the old Lions Eye Ward as a part of the Accident and Emergency. When I went to see my friend, he was chucked somewhere in a corridor in that area. It was hot and the poor nurses, they work really hard, I asked them for a fan, they said, ‘But there’s no plug down here! There is nowhere to plug it in.’
“So here was this person, you sweltering under those conditions, I think we are better than that.
“That may be a one-off instance, but I think we are much better than that.”
The senator said that the level of service at the institution cannot be allowed to slip and slide down. “I want us to pay some close attention to what is happening at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It is still our primary tertiary care institution. It is still the place to which we all have to resort.”
