Doctor: Mt Hope needs more wards, nurses

Clinical Director of the Adult Priority Care facility Dr Helmer Hilwig said Prime Minister Manning’s statement made in the 2004/2005 Budget that residents of Mt Hope and its environs receive free medical treatment at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) was not completely correct. Dr Hilwig said only services at the paediatric ward were free to children up to 16 years who resided, not only in the Mt Hope area but anywhere in the country. “However, if an adult from Champs Fleurs walks into the Mt Hope hospital for treatment now, he or she has to first pay an access fee of $165 and an admittance fee of $350 per day and this room has air-condition, TV, telephone and bathroom,” Dr Hilwig told Sunday Newsday. Moreover, he said adult patients from any district in Trinidad were only spared all costs at the EWMSC if they were referred by the Arima Health Facility and Chaguanas Health Facility.

Manning said persons living in the Mt Hope and surrounding areas received free treatment at EWMSC and described such action as “inequitable and pernicious.” Dr Hilwig welcomed the idea of free medical services for all at his institution, but expressed uncertainty as to whether it would come to fruition by January 1, 2005. “I don’t know how they work that out yet. Currently, we have limited bed capacity with one adult medical ward and one adult surgical ward,” he said. The wards accommodate 20 and 22 beds, respectively. “If we have to cater to a wider public that means we need more surgical wards and medical wards and more nurses. For every ward you need 25 nurses and our biggest problem is nurses,” Dr Hilwig added. He said he recently wrote to the Minister of Health requesting that government open another adult ward and he was still awaiting a response.

“We cannot just pull out nurses from our pocket, and the foreign market are thieves of our nurses,” he added. More nurses, he said, were also needed to function at the Intensive Care Unit as only four of the nine beds there, were functional. “These are life and death cases. When patients have to be placed in the ICU and it is filled, it is very difficult to obtain space at other institutions. “If I had one wish I would ask for more nurses, free surgical and medical wards which would expand and improve our health services.” $1.86 billion has been allocated to the health sector, $200 million more than was allocated last year. Manning, in his budget speech, promised to address the shortage of nurses and doctors as well as improve hospitals and health centres and increase public accessibility to treatment for various ailments.