The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS


Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

CONSULTANT Physicians Staff Association president Dr Charelle Lockhart says Princess Margaret Hospital is in the worst condition she has seen in her 22 years working in public practice, a reality she says means people must take responsibility for their own health as the public healthcare system struggles with chronic shortages of staff, equipment and supplies.

Dr Lockhart, who has been vocal for several years about deteriorating conditions at the hospital and has repeatedly called for systemic reform, made the comments yesterday while appearing as a guest on Guardian Radio’s Morning Blend.

“We are in dire straits, I would say, and I’m going to say some things that probably would not be popular with the administration, and that might not be popular with the Bahamian people,” Dr Lockhart said.

“At the end of the day, as an individual, you have to take responsibility for your healthcare. You cannot expect for the government to take responsibility for your healthcare because what’s going on in our public healthcare system is scary to say the least. We lack resources, we lack supplies, we lack human resources, and there’s only so long that the few can continue to keep the seams together.”

Dr Lockhart, a paediatrician, said conditions have steadily deteriorated over time, despite recent capital investments at Princess Margaret Hospital, including the construction of a paediatric unit and the Accident and Emergency Department. She said those facilities remain unequipped and understaffed, limiting their effectiveness.

“It is worse than I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I’ve been in the public hospital for the last 22 years.”

She recalled returning to Princess Margaret Hospital in 2011 after completing her specialisation overseas and described the hospital at that time as a place she enjoyed working.

“I enjoyed going there every day and taking care of sick kids,” she said. “I was coordinator of the Neonatal Intensive Care Transport programme, loved it.”

Dr Lockhart said the gradual erosion of the system has been driven by administrative restructuring involving the Public Hospitals Authority, the Department of Public Health and the Ministry of Health, which she said has worn down healthcare professionals.

“Over time it wears on you, because you think you’re going to come in and save everything and the machinery of the public hospital system, the PHA, the change from Department of Public Health and PHA and Ministry of Health, and bringing all those things together, it has worn on me over time, and that’s me personally. So I’m sure it’s happening to other physicians as well,” she said.

She said the lack of a clearly defined national vision for healthcare has contributed to burnout and the loss of skilled staff.

“I really have to, you know, take some Biblical words – where there’s no vision, the people perish, and I feel like we cannot see the vision for healthcare in The Bahamas,” she said. “And so I implore the government and the Public Hospitals Authority and the Department of Public Health, you need to show your healthcare staff what your vision is, otherwise you will never get buy in from them.”

Dr Lockhart said the impact of shortages is felt daily in patient care. She noted that as recently as Monday, she was unable to treat a child in the paediatric emergency unit because basic medical equipment was unavailable.

“I had a kid with a foreign body in her nose, and in the paediatric emergency room, I don’t have instrumentation to take the tissue out of her nose,” she said. “I don’t have the tools with which to take the tissue out of the child.”

She said she ultimately retrieved the instrument from her private practice in order to treat the patient.

“I cannot sit there and not be able to do something in the pediatric emergency room that I can do in my office,” she said. “It’s crazy to me.”

Dr Lockhart also highlighted what she described as poor deployment of specialised staff, citing cases where nurses trained overseas in neonatal care were reassigned to unrelated wards upon returning to Princess Margaret Hospital.

“You have a specialty nurse that takes care of the sickest of the sickest of the tiniest babies, and you’re gonna send her to male medical. Why?” she asked.

She said staff losses extend beyond physicians to nurses, technicians and other healthcare workers.

Dr Lockhart also challenged public expectations surrounding healthcare costs, arguing that the perception of free healthcare is unsustainable.

“Healthcare is not free,” she said. “You cannot come into a public hospital and pay $0 and expect to get the mall looking hospital that you see in the US.”

“Those two things do not go together and so when our government decided to, you know, show people that you can do that, you can go in the hospital, pay $0 and get the best care, that was where we made the mistake. You cannot. We have to pay something. The money has to come from somewhere and if you can eat fast food every day, and I speak to parents every day about what they’re feeding their kids, and it is fast food every single day, if they can afford fast food, every day, they can afford to pay $15, $20, $30, when they present at the hospital.”