Dentists with no tools at EWMSC

THE EDITOR: Please find below an open letter to the Chief of Staff at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. Mr Rowland Moze Chief of Staff EWMSC. Dear Mr Rowland On Sunday July 11, our 14-month-old son fell down a few stairs and suffered damage to his front tooth and jaw. We immediately rushed him to the Paediatric Priority Care Facility of the EWMSC, where we were greeted with great warmth and respect by the staff. X-rays were taken and two dental interns were immediately called out to attend to our baby, who was bleeding from the mouth and whose tooth was substantially displaced from the jaw and jutting forward at a 90-degree angle, but still attached by tissue. Imagine our shock and distress, however, when the concerned but frustrated dentists informed us that they would have love to help, but that all the dental tools in the PCF had been “taken away by the Regional Health Authority.”

In other words, the largest paediatric emergency centre in the country has dentists but no dental tools. How can this be? Children do not only develop fevers and suffer asthma attacks. They fall out of trees, off bicycles and yes, down stairs. Why were these tools taken away? What were they thinking? Eventually, a third dentist arrived and attempted to suture the damaged tooth back into the gum, although this operation also faced a delay as there was only one nurse on duty to administer medication to a number of distressed children, including our son. A lot has been said about the poor service meted out to patients at the EWMSC; but in our experience, the medical staff have been nothing but kind and concerned, but crippled by a lack of staff, tools and equipment. Please, let compassion and common sense prevail. Do not let bureaucracy and political expediency get in the way of proper paediatric health care. The children must come first!

ROSLYN CARRINGTON
RAWLE PHILLIP
Mausica