Round-the-clock hotline to be set up at MSJMC

A 24-hour hotline for public complaints is just one of a number of measures that health officials are planning to put in place to ensure more efficient service in the health care delivery system at Mount St. John’s Medical Centre (MSJMC).
This is in the wake of a nurse, Josette Gilead, posting a video to facebook about the poor medical care she received as a patient at the hospital. The video went viral shortly after.
Minister of Health, Molwyn Joseph, praised what he termed “the sterling contribution nurses have made to our health care system over the years”, even as he acknowledged that Gilead’s complaints were legitimate.
“Let us not bury our heads in the sand and pretend we are not confronted by personnel and systemic challenges,” the minister said.
Joseph then listed several measures that would be implemented at MSJMC over the next few months. They include enhancing the nursing school’s curriculum, retraining and refresher courses, quarterly evaluation of nurses and other caregivers and the creation of the hotline, which, he says, will be up and running “within no more than two weeks”.
Dr Albert Duncan, medical director of MSJMC, explained that the hotline would be managed by a patients’ advocate who would work as a liaison between the public and the hospital staff.
The minister believes that these measures will go a long way.
“We are turning lemons into lemonade. We believe in the principle that when you encounter adversity it provides an opportunity to make good and do better,” he said.
Dr Duncan, while acknowledging that there was still much to be done to truly fix the health care and nursing system, he agreed with the minister.
“We still have a long way to go to really get the entire system working the way we want it to work. It did not go bad overnight. It will not get fixed overnight but we are getting there, and this is a step in the right direction,” the medical director said.