Dr Tufton decision to keep CRH open, was simply strategic thinking !

It is hard to believe that the situation at the Cornwall Regional Hospital was allowed to deteriorate so much under the PNP lead administration, which held the seat of power for 28 of the last 34 years.

How could the government have neglected that institution , allowing it to fall into significant disrepair and is now touring it every other week to assess what is taking place, can someone please explain this to me.

The public should really demand an inquiry into the management of the hospital over the last 20 years to assess the budgetary allocations that have been made, including monies spent on repairs and maintenance during that period of time.

It is unbelievable that any government should have allowed this sort of neglect to take place and have not been held accountable for it.

The decision to keep the hospital open by this present government is the best decision that could have been made at the time given a number of variables

1. St James in 2016/17 was the murder capital of Jamaica and CRH was conducting regular emergency surgeries to save lives.
2. With no other facility close by to accommodate all labs, surgical theater etc, it would have simple been impractical if not criminal to close it without  ADEQUATE facilities being in place to take on that additional burden.
3. Health care facilities as reported by Dr Dawes back in 2015 were largely in state of disrepair and without basic drugs and adequate facilities to take care of its existing patients.  Wide spread over crowding etc were a constant feature.

The decision not to close have been vindicated by reports of 1800 emergencies life saving surgeries  that have been completed during the time the institution remained open.  Those families must be signing nothing but praise for the staff of the hospital, who though under press, fought to save their lives.

Had Dr Dayton Campbell been the Minister of Health, we probably would have had over 1800 grieving families today, seeking to sue the government for negligence in closing the facility without having in place ready and practical alternatives to this hospital.

To believe you could build  furnish  two additional surgical wards , plus lab etc in even a month speaks to the rather infantile though process and abject ignorance on the path of those person shouting this sort of stupidity on the top of their voices.

I would like to send a big thank you to the nurses, doctors and other staff members who endured what could be considered to be a  “war zone” to tend to the needs of others and save lives in the process, you are the real heroes.

Those berating this kind of live saving  moves are the real  zeroes ! 

I am simply happy the PNP were not on power when this crises unfolded as today the narrative would have been ” how stupid could they have been to close the place and cause so many people to die”.

Truth be told, this sort of thinking is very prevalent in that party, and is partly the cause of the financial sector collapse, in the 1990’s which we are still suffering from today.

To Dr Tufton I say, well done sir under tough circumstances, your strategic vs impulsive thinking has resulted in maybe 1800 more people being alive today and for that we are very grateful.

To those who would have rather been talking about how many lives could have been saved, keep on trying to find alternatives, which even with hindsight many have still been unable to find.

” if you could do in this month, why could you have not done it last year”.

That is like saying ”  If you could afford to build a house today,  why could have you not afforded to have done so last year”.

 

Saving Health, Saving Jamaica – Dr Alfred Dawes

This is the PNP legacy, we can expect to hear more horror stories soon and the JLP as janitors will have to once again clean up the PNP mess !!