I spent about eight hours in the Accident and Emergency Department at the hospital with a relative recently. Before me, my brother spent about 14 hours with the same relative and then another brother spent about five. Together, waiting with the relative, we spent almost 30 hours before she was seen by a doctor. I have heard of others who spent days waiting to be seen.Â
There was a young woman there with a child. The boy she carried was unwell, and he vomited on the floor. It was a large amount. That vomit stayed there in full view and smell of those nearby and passers-by for over an hour before a worker came to clean it and I believe that this only occurred because I spoke to the Patient Advocate about the smell and this forced him to make a second call to the housekeeping department.
This is the hospital that taxpayers pay for and the treatment there is abominable. If the problem is staffing, then every effort must be made to get to the bottom of this crisis. It is totally unacceptable, shameful, insensitive and uncaring for people to go through this nonsense when they have to visit there. Despite whatever administration is in, this foolishness continues. People sat quietly waiting their turn whilst one lady vented her frustration. Some people die before getting treated.Â
This is WRONG by any standard. We do not need nice sounding rhetoric about how to fix the problem. We want it fixed NOW. A modern hospital cannot operate at this rate for decades, whilst highly paid bureaucrats get paid for running an inefficient operation mandated to deal with the health of the majority of Black people in this country. Our social systems were set up to serve the people and this must be made to happen. Others can attest to the absolute poor attitude of some civil servants, who, at the end of the day, are inefficient but continue to underperform in their positions indefinitely. This needs to change NOW.
On another note, no pun intended, the banks are drunk and crazy. I went to a bank to do a transaction and wanted to use the drop box. When I realised that there were no envelopes to put the money in, I inquired about one and was told by a worker there that I had to bring my own envelope to expedite the transaction. Was her head good? To pay them their money? And the thing about it, is that there were boxes full of envelopes at various stations sitting idly by. I moved from one station to the next and was told the same garbage before one guy gave me one. It seems like the more we change, the more we remain the same. But we seem to like it so.
 Ian Marshall
