Dear Editor,
A few days ago (Saturday, September 6) I went to visit a relative who is a patient in the male ward at the Georgetown Public Hospital, located on the second floor above the psychiatric clinic. I was appalled at how filthy the ward was. There were lots of flies everywhere and the terrible foul stench emanating from the ward was unbearable. If that was not enough, there were ten patients lying on beds without sheets. From where I stood, the sheets that were on beds seemed to belong to the patients lying on them because they were of different colours and designs (ie, not the plain linens that hospitals usually use). I decided to walk around the ward and talk with some patients and visiting relatives and their response to my question relating to the sheets confirmed my assumption.
On the bed next to my relative lay an elderly man who is bed-ridden and using pampers which were due to be changed. I was shocked when his wife, with the assistance of a nurse aide, proceeded to tidy that patient in the open ward (it was during visiting hours). There was no screen around the bed neither was there a mobile one in sight. The two women seemed not to be bothered that the man’s nakedness was exposed to all present. I guess it has become normal.
In addition, there were no chairs at the bedside of the patients for visitors to sit on but close to the bathroom area there were a few very rusty- looking metal ones that frankly, no one should even think of using.
I felt sick at what I encountered. A hospital is supposed to be a health institution to which people who are ill go for medical assistance in order to be well again, but I don’t know how that is possible when the place is so nasty and shabby looking.
From what I saw, the nurses on duty were trying to do the best they could. They were pleasant and very helpful. Moreover, from all appearances it would be unfair to say that the nurses and cleaners are responsible for the state of that ward. I don’t know what combination of factors explains what I saw and the general acceptance of such low standards, but I feel strongly that the hospital administration and all those in authority have to accept responsibility. This is disgraceful and at the same time disheartening. Why should poor people have to accept and endure this kind of inhumane treatment?
Yours faithfully,
Joy Marcus
