It’s amazing how the change from one hospital to another could be so contrasting, from one of great care and attention to the other where the attitude of inhumane neglect and disrespect of the patients is the order of the day.
This is the conviction of Andrew Clement, also known as Fatman of Prospect Hall. Sitting at the Princess Royal Hospital in his wheel chair as a double amputee Mr. Clement pointed out that while he can give the Carriacou hospital an A grade for attendance and cleanliness he has to give the General Hospital in Grenada a Z for zero.
He told Informer’s Inside Carriacou and Petite Martinique that he is again appalled and disappointed at the level of unprofessionalism patients like him are being made to endure while seeking medical attention at the nation’s premier health facility. Clement returned to Carriacou two weeks ago after spending a month at the General Hospital. It was his third stay at the hospital.
Some of the nurses he points out are doing as they please and not following the instructions which they receive from the doctors. He says that one would think that a double amputee would be given greater assistance through his lack of mobility but laments that this is not the case at the General Hospital.
“I don’t blame the government for this” he pointed out, “I’m blaming management”.
“This has to be with some of the workers who seem to be on a totally different mission other than attending to patients at the hospital” he added.
“Those nurses are not careful”, he said in a solemn tone.
He claims that he was at a room where they burn body parts. This he said made him feel sicker than he was. Cleaning up he pointed out was done between 3 and 4 a.m. and it would be a 24 hour wait before it is done again. Clement said that on one occasion he was administered the wrong tablet. As he placed it into his mouth he said and was about to drink the water to swallow it he was quickly stopped by the nurse who he said rushed back into the room to inform him that it was an incorrect tablet.
Another of his many trials he said was with the use of a wheel chair. He said that it seemed to have been the only wheel chair that was working at the time.
“They wanted it and I told them no because for a man with no legs I have to use the chair especially when going to the wash room”.
“As soon as I entered into the washroom they took the chair and left me to fend for myself”
“How wicked can they be”? He questioned.
Recalling some the names of the nurses which he say he has recorded, Mr. Clement said that the level of biasness and favoritism in the hospital is one “which they showing too plain”. He said that he has had so much unpleasant experiences at the hospital that “I can write the ambulance full of books”.
Photo courtesy http://www.thegrenadainformer.com/
The hospital he pointed out is overrun with roaches, which he reminds are dangerous to human health.
Those nurses he said operate in groups of twos and threes “only shoo-shooing about politics”.
“Only NNP and NDC is what the order of the day is.
“And can’t wait for month end” pointed out Mr. Clement as he sat in his wheelchair at the Princess Royal Hospital reiterating on the pleasantness of that institution.
He said that he was in an area which is referred to as “Baghdad”. Mr. Clement said that the conditions are so deplorable that he had to bring his own fan for cooling.
“Two persons sent fans for me and I had to end up lending them one as one of the nurses told me that none of theirs was working” he quipped.
When the conditions became too tough to bear he said he had to utter to them “I used to listen people calling on the radio about the poor state of health care here and I did not believe but they are right, this is terrible”.
Mr. Clement said there was an occasion when a nurse came to dress his leg. He added that after she received a phone call to her mobile phone she went outside and never returned until one hour and twenty-five minutes after to attend to his leg.
“Sometime when they are attending to my leg they don’t even have the heart and patience to unwrap the bandage carefully but would pull it down regardless to the pain it causes which made me cry out” added Mr. Clement with a grimace of pain in his voice.
Several complaints he says were lodged to the sister of the hospital about what he says was “severe mistreatment”.
Mr. Clement, who said he was on bed 28, also pointed out that there was an occasion when they had no dressing at the hospital and he had to wait for the following day.
In praising the Princess Royal Hospital he said it’s clean and friendly.
“Even if your food falls on the ground here at the Carriacou hospital, you can pick it up and eat” said Clement as he showered credos on PRH.
He said that “I’m not staying quiet and take my death as sheep”.
From his observation of the assortment of challenges while at the General Hospital in Grenada, Mr. Clement concludes by calling on the government to look into the operation at the facility so that better care can be administered to patients. Article courtesy http://www.thegrenadainformer.com/
