A sick hospital, carnival wine and Bible thumpers
HAVING INHERITED a mouldy hospital and spent too much time going back in his head in trying to make the best fix to a complex problem, Health Minister Christopher Tufton is now finding that a mountain of apologies will not make the mould go away.
The Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) will still be sick and patients and staff will still be exposed to potential health hazards. Unlike during a few months back when Bobby Montague was security minister and he made claim to an uncle who had obeah powers, Tufton seems not the sort to respond to a good bush bath or go off making five circuits round the folly tree.
When ministers are forced to expend valuable time defending policy jitters or institutional failures, little time is left over for actual policy advancement or effective management. Tufton needed to free his soul. He should have grabbed for the best mouldy carnival costume, selected his best wining partner and taken to the streets in an attempt to jook and jam his problems away.
HUMANS LIKE US
After all, ministers are humans just like the rest of us, so when their troubles mount they, too, need to engage in the kind of recreation that will mask the embarrassment of demonstrable ministerial failures. But then again, maybe the minister could have clutched his Bible, his good thoughts and his prayers and sang in a church last weekend. He, too, would have been able to see the devil imploring the street revellers to take the direct path to hell, drinking, laughing and wining as they headed to the fiery pit.
Minister Tufton seems to be more the sensitive type of politician instead of the tough-asnails type who cares little about what others say in criticism. He ought to know that the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has sensed that as one of his major human weaknesses, and that is their plan to keep him bogged down in a sea of sobs and regrets.
The calls for his resignations would only be sound on the grounds that he knew of the dangers posed to patients and medical personnel, deliberately hid the findings and then decided to spin himself out of facing up to the truth of the situation. But it is more than that.
The CRH has been sick for decades. Yes, even in the time of PNP administrations. The worst that could be ascribed to Minister Tufton is, he attempted to do what past administrations did – kick the CRH can down the road and use ketchy shubby as a main policy approach.
Take heart, Dr Tufton. The difficulty factor in your ministry is just about at the same level as the potential toxins straddling the corridors of the CRH and the societal fault lines in Montego Bay. Take heart, Dr Tufton, our problems are legion and, if we should follow the words of some churchgoers who complained about the noise of last weekend’s street revellers, we are badly adrift amid the wine, the rum and the song.
Many of us have your back, Dr Tufton, but only because you mirror our own failings and not because you lived up to the faith we had in you.
Will you eventually get it right? Maybe you need to consult with your colleague, Bobby Montague, who I suspect really has an uncle well practised in the dark arts. Just as a backup Minister, take a Bible with you.
On the way to St Thomas, find the best cure to CRH, announce it to the nation and we will love you again, costume, Bible, song and bush bath.