When the clerk say so is so

THE EDITOR: I write this letter out of sheer concern as a nurse of 33 years plus with the ministry of Health. Today Thursday 21/8/03, I renewed my driver’s permit for a private vehicle at the Chaguanas Branch of the Licensing Office. This permit expires on 22./8/03. Much to my amazement, an apparent visual or eye test is carried out by the clerk at the counter who determines whether each person should wear corrective lens or spectacles or not when driving. (Medico Legal Implications or not?)

After asking me to read with one eye covered, I was asked to uncover the eye and then read with it. I was able to read about the 4th/5th line without glasses. Professional health care givers know between these checks the vision is cloudy/blurred. I need not state the haste between these checks. Good Heavens this is not her profession! Next question can you read with these glasses? indicating those held around my neck. “Well you cannot read without them and you will have to take out the photograph with the glasses.” Forthwith, I informed her that on my file at the Licensing head office I had submitted a report by one of the Consultant Eye Specialist/Ophthalmologist that I did not require glasses to drive. Well you will have to take it out with the glasses. May I hasten to add here that I do yearly checks at Visual Eyes, Curepe for refractive errors and bi-yearly for spectacles assessment. In submission, I conformed to the clerical/medical authority. But look what medicine has come to nuh. Not even the nurse or allied services would step out of their crease. The issue here, my dear readers who decides whether you should wear spectacles or corrective lens or not for driving purposes. Now I must drive with my spectacles. Well this is a weekend and if the police should stop me for any reason whatsoever, I must be recognised as the chauffeur who wears glasses (just as my driver’s permit reveals). Now I am capable of driving without glasses even at night. Thank God. Health Care/Health Promotion. Look who now determines the standards for Trinidad and Tobago. Such a person or persons must have had brilliant ideas but not just any old thing will do.

As regards the limb of police/the law. This is a typical case: I was working at San Juan health Centre, when one day while driving from west to east a vehicle approaching me from south to north ran into my vehicle. I tooted my horn several times before, but it did not work. We both agreed to report the matter to the San Juan Police Station. Scarcely I had begun to tell my story to the Police Constable told me to shut my mouth. Quite emphatically she states “You!” pointing to me are wrong. God was on my side, the other driver quickly admitted that he was wrong. No apologies. He said calmly, “well all yuh go make up nuh” and tried to give me some advice about repairs. Fellow readers that driver had only one functioning eye (I have now learnt that there are other drivers like that on the road). Again the Clerk decides. This is the issue where a public servant is considered for extended leave or not. The Ministry of Health has unfortunately allowed the clerical staff to interpret diagnosis of public servants according to stereotype listing. Sorry, clerks did not go to Med School or Nursing School or Allied Health Institutions so how on earth are they expected to approve the diagnosed. Just imagine after major surgery the clerk does not approve of a case as eligible for extended sick leave. To date I am a victim of this system which has cost me salary deduction amounting to $5000 TT.

Another irony is the Internal Audit Department of the Ministry of Health. Would you believe my pension and leave for retirement slept for months on a desk at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. Why? Among other futile excuses, the clerk/auditor does not see evidence on my file where I had passed Part 1 and 11 as a Student Nurse (but you cannot sit the exam or become a registered nurse without these two.) I am now left to wonder as a licensed midwife all those births/deliveries of citizens of Trinidad and Tobago where I played a major role and my name was carved in gold in the books, are they now not valid? Dear readers, a registered nurse in Trinidad and Tobago is registered with the Nursing Council of Trinidad and Tobago, appointed and confirmed after one year or more by the Service Commission department. But now the clerk is not sure at all whether I came through the correct system. But who really cares? Who knows where to draw the line? One may argue everyone is privy to medical knowledge (tertiary educational source). Yes this may be true to some extent on the basis of research. But eh! Eh! What do you have to substantiate for the honorary surgical expertise vested in the Surgeon (Now even the clerk is allowed to class as invalid). To all health promotion flag bearers, I say “wake up and smell the coffee.” To my dear clerical, friends and relatives I am not trying to bash you. I was looking at your diet and your plate seems to have the wrong food groups.

LUCILLA ELIGON
RN/LM/DN
Trained DHV(UWI)