By Emmanuel Joseph
Persistent reports of severe delays facing elderly people seeking medical attention from Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency medics came into stark view on Friday night as a grandfather was set to spend a seventh day in the Accident and Emergency Department.
Gale Hunte, who said she worked as a healthcare professional in England’s state-run National Health Service and was familiar with emergency room procedures, said her granddad arrived at A&E last Sunday, complaining of an irregular heartbeat.
Speaking to Barbados TODAY by phone from the hospital, she said: “I am here with my grandad in hospital at the moment. He has been in A&E for a week. The nurse told me he needs clothes and pampers, but nobody cared to tell me that all week. She has not been able to give me an assessment at the moment.”
Hunte declined to identify her grandfather, describing him as a private person who would prefer anonymity.
“The thing I am most concerned about is that he came in for a heart irregularity… and they treated him, and he is critical,” she said. “I stand to be corrected, but to my knowledge, my grandad has not had any food, any liquid food, no tubes put in him; nothing, since Sunday.”
She said he was not eating much during the week because he felt unwell but later asked for water.
“I want what is right,” said Hunte. “I want my granddad to be treated like a human being. I left him in one hallway to find him in another hallway. That’s one thing. The second thing I want to highlight is the abject health crisis management issue that we have in Barbados when it comes to healthcare across the board. People are finding it difficult to get care, and the health services that they need. Hospital staff are overworked, there is a lack of beds.
“What is the government doing about this situation? What are they going to be doing about people like my granddad? Really and truly to me, it’s like he is being left here to die. That’s the way to look at it…. He’s been tucked away in a corner by himself.”
When contacted by Barbados TODAY, Communications Specialist at the QEH Shane Sealy advised Hunte to contact the hospital’s patient relations department to have the matter addressed as patient care was paramount.
Acknowledging mounting criticisms and complaints about service levels at the hospital, particularly in the A&E department which has been saddled with patient delays, Anthony Harris, the hospital’s head of medical services said early last month that a “fully expanded” emergency care system would soon be more efficient and responsive.
He announced that the challenges faced by the A&E department are expected to ease after this full expansion, scheduled for March.
Harris had told Barbados TODAY: “We are hoping that with the fully expanded A&E, we will be able to provide some ease for patients and some ease for us, because the flow should get better and if we believe the maxim that function will follow form, we are expecting that we will see some improvement. We are not going to be naive to think that this will solve all of the problems because all are not in the A&E itself but also the Ward because of the outflow of patients and as you have been hearing from the news, we have several elderly for care.”
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
