The blackening of Chris Tufton
THINGS ARE so bad at Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) it appears that whole new diseases are being invented in the building. That said, let me outline where I’m going with all this ahead of time and lay it right out there: there are serious questions to answer, and it looks as if there may have been an error in judgement, but I don’t think Minister Tufton should resign or be asked to resign.
Anyway, it’s a very serious matter. According to The Gleaner, Carmen Johnson, the president of the Nurses’ Association of Jamaica (NAJ), reports: “We have some of the young nurses who are diagnosed with chronic hypertension who were never hypertensive, chronic heart conditions, who never had any issues... Some who were browner in skin are now darker. Some are suffering from loss of memory, and some people are too weak to function.”
All of this is attributable, it appears, to the sick building and mould infestation in the HAVC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) system at CRH that has gone unfixed for decades.
Obviously, I’m approaching this matter as a non-medical professional, but only one of the mentioned diseases was completely new to me. I had heard of hypertension, heart disease, memory loss, and physical weakness. However, the disease of blackening wasn’t something I had come across, probably because I grew up in sheltered circumstances.
However that may be, the situation is clearly intolerable. I had heard of the superbugs being gestated in hospitals, and that they are places to avoid lest one gets ill in there. But this is something else. Superbugs are frightening, but when whole new diseases like blackening are being invented at CRH, it’s time to look at everything from scratch.
OK, let me approach this from another angle, because in watching this thing play out, my Spidey-senses keep tingling. It’s almost as if it’s reminding me of something similar! Oh wait! Fenton.
Remember the wicked slaps administered to Dr Ferguson for the ‘Dead Babies Scandal’ and the ‘Chik-V Scandal’? First off, the chik-V was crawling inexorably across the Caribbean, but it was so thoroughly politicised that nobody was allowed to get sick without cursing Fenton under their breath. Then Fenton made the unpardonable mistake of misspeaking while describing his desperate efforts to get the neo-natal infections under control. He was crucified, you will recall, for saying that the neonates weren’t babies “in the real sense”. So now it’s the ‘Cornwall Regional Scandal’ and Tufton’s turn on the rack.
TIME FOR THE PHILOSOPHICAL EXCURSION
Yes, we were told to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, but experience has taught us to “Do unto others and make damn certain that they cannot do back unto you”. And that’s the problem with your garden variety moralistic aphorism: you can invert it completely and it only gets more interesting – and true.
On the other hand, the plainer countryman observations of the Jamaican peasantry, avoid moralism and just gives you the facts: “Same knife stick sheep, stick goat”. Or how about this one: “When yuh ah dig hole, dig two”. I love these pragmatic warnings about the ways of the world, structured along the “watch de ride” approach to life, rather than a “do this and do that”.
Well, unsurprisingly, one of the responses to this crisis is “If it was Fenton they would have taken his head off long ago”. I happen to think that’s true, but it’s also not enough of a reason for Tufton’s head to fly.
This CRH problem has been long-standing, spanning administrations and ministers, and the consensus is that for every problem that was uncovered, others sprouted up. It’s also symbolic of the underfunding of health, which has been exacerbated by the Golding-era roll-back of user fees that both political parties now feel is politically irreversible. Notice how well it’s working out.
‘Free’ healthcare is all well and good, but to afford it we will have to give up some other things, including the bullo-wuk, copious bushing projects, SUV purchases, and some other goodies, like the “1.5”. That ain’t happening! So we must therefore get comfy with a crappy system for poor people and a good one for we wealthy folk, just like in the good old days.
DOING A GOOD JOB
Anyway, I like Chris Tufton and I think that the public perception that he’s overall doing a good job is accurate. The truth is that in this CRH matter he was forced to make some difficult decisions in very trying circumstances. It seems as if the clear and unanimous recommendation, by MOH technocrats and PAHO alike, was for there to be evacuation of the sick building from early 2017. But what do they know about the ministerial need to back up the “1.5”?
His BIG error, it seems, was to consult the attorney general, who seems to have concocted a theory that the “recommendations” of everyone who knows about these things didn’t amount to an “order”. When Ruel Reid was about to take a picture of KD in the Senate, shall we say that KD “recommended” he desist? Or “ordered” him? Ladies and gentlemen, your attorney general is developing an unenviable long string of misses and can be relied upon to give bad advice.
Still, it’s not as if there are ready alternatives to CRH around, and so, therefore, one could have reasonably concluded that hobbling along and effectuating remedial changes as quickly as possible was the best choice. Talking about boondoggles and idiotic spending though: it turns out that Falmouth Hospital has two Surgical Suites built for the Cricket World Cup (remember that?) that have never been used.
CONFLICT ZONE
And again, if the whole operation had been moved out into tents, then it would have solidified the international impression, justified by last year’s murder stats and this year’s state of emergency, that Montego Bay is a war-torn conflict zone.
We can acknowledge that there have been some big changes going on out there. They’ve turned the old nurses’ accommodations into wards, they’ve taken over the SeventhDay Adventist Convention Centre for the outpatient clinic, and they’ve expanded the Mount Salem Health Centre for Accident & Emergency. Remember, too, that Portia had secured the money for a Children’s Hospital on that premises, so hopefully, Mr Holness can get it built and then name it after someone else.
And that, to my mind, is what this particular controversy boils down to: what was done since early 2017 when it was made unmistakably plain that CRH was in a full-on crisis?
In the meanwhile, it looks as if Tufton has been spending time down at CRH, because as they’re lining him up to give the Fenton treatment, I can only attribute that to this new disease: blackening. My bredrin better buy some Cake Soap.
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