EDITOR, The Tribune.

There are many fine medical practitioners at the Princess Margaret Hospital who do a fine job with limited resources, and are worthy of our utmost respect and appreciation. This letter is not about them.

Nor is it directly about the other practitioners who because of them have become so beaten down and soul deadened, they no longer care about the patients they serve.

Neither is it about the people who simply do not care, and should not be in the medical profession period.

This letter is about the sorry state of PMH. I accompanied a relative to Accident and Emergency on October 18, 2014.

Having never been there before, the experience was an eye-opener. It was smaller than I had thought, and to say it was full is to say water is wet.

In the immediate area there were about 20 chairs – when you take away the ones missing in the rows, the torn ones, and the ones that have bent so much that they are staring at the floor instead of straight ahead at the wall.

It was lit, but not well so, and a mop gliding across the floor would have been much appreciated. People stood, and some sat along the floor, picking up God knows what germs.

There was not even a water cooler, to offer water for people who had been waiting all day for help. One poor woman had been waiting 10 hours for her baby to be seen. Think about that. Think about what could have been accomplished or happen in 42 per cent of a day.

I could not help thinking as I saw the poor working conditions, the dirt (set in stains on the floor in the emergency area, paper from discarded medical tools on the ground) that our government had failed us. Not just the current government, but all our governing parties (I am an independent).

Our people are being treated worse than animals. A pig belongs in a pigpen, not people. How can MPs go into the House and pontificate all day long when such conditions exist in PMH? How can the Minister of Health hold his head high?

How can the government spend millions of dollars on the new critical care ward (which has yet to open) and seemingly forsake the existing building? How can the public be expected to believe anything they say with regards to Ebola when it seems the most innocuous of diseases can be easily transmitted to you under the present hospital setting?

I could go on about what I heard first hand of what others had been experiencing at A&E. I could go on about what I saw of the physical areas. I could go on about the lack of concern seemingly rolling off some of the staff in waves. I could go on, but it would sadden me to do so. Bahamas we deserve better.

Our politicians should be forced to visit such places incognito so that they could see – truly see with their eyes what is going on. We do not need a photo-op with the Prime Minister and his entourage waltzing in; or the Minister of Health standing in front of the building pontificating whilst the PR crew tidies up the place for the cameras.

What we need is concerted political will, and pressure from the public for positive changes to be made. The dignity of the person must be respected at all times. We are all created in God’s image and worthy of all honour and decency. Get off your high horses government officials, stop trying to cover yourselves and holding out a laundry list of excuses.

I do not care to hear about how what is happening is this government’s fault, or that government’s fault; this former health minister’s fault, or that former health minister’s fault.

Play the blame game after the situation is dealt with. You are the current government. You were elected to lead, to be caretaker of the public good. Do so. PMH should not feel like a public disgrace.

The public should not walk in there, feet dragging because they have no other choice. Fix the physical dimension, to uplift the spiritual one.

Offer the public clean, well lit halls, with comfortable chairs, water to drink, and soothing, caring staff to help ease their minds a little, that is already agitated just by being there.

Turn a faltering national disgrace into a towering beacon of pride. It is what the people at the very least deserve.

ANONYMOUS

Nassau,

October 20, 2014.