Dear Editor,
There is a misconception going around that people are being turned away at hospitals and told to visit the health centre for CHIKV symptoms. There are hundreds of patients seen at hospitals each day for many different complaints, not to mention the emergency cases. Patients without any chronic medical illness, in the acute stage of an illness are being told to visit their health centres. Hospitals, however, have a responsibility to attend to emergency and detrimental patients as priority. It would overwork the resources at the hospitals and staff to attend to everyone who comes with CHIKV symptoms.
In the humblest terms, please utilise the primary health care facilities to deal with symptoms. They are equipped with the necessary resources, which include medical doctors and other staff and drugs, to treat patients for the virus.
If the symptoms persist beyond a specified period, then they are advised to revisit the primary health care facilities or the secondary facilities for further treatment. It is never the intention of hospitals to deny anyone access to medical attention at any level. Hospitals are secondary facilities and citizens have not been adequately using them as such. Those with symptoms should follow the necessary guidelines as we use our health services effectively to serve everyone in need.
We must also learn from this experience to clean up our surroundings to prevent future occurrence and rid our environment of breeding sites for mosquitoes and other vectors, which most times is caused by how we irresponsibly dispose of our waste.
We should not blame the minister of health or the Government for our irresponsible action, but instead develop ways to keep our homes, communities and country clean. The millions of dollars the Government has had to spend on clean-up efforts could be better spent on infrastructural development.
Orville Scott
Vice-Chairman
St Ann's Bay Hospital Management Committee
orvillescott@yahoo.com
Attend primary health care facilities first
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There is a misconception going around that people are being turned away at hospitals and told to visit the health centre for CHIKV symptoms. There are hundreds of patients seen at hospitals each day for many different complaints, not to mention the emergency cases. Patients without any chronic medical illness, in the acute stage of an illness are being told to visit their health centres. Hospitals, however, have a responsibility to attend to emergency and detrimental patients as priority. It would overwork the resources at the hospitals and staff to attend to everyone who comes with CHIKV symptoms.
In the humblest terms, please utilise the primary health care facilities to deal with symptoms. They are equipped with the necessary resources, which include medical doctors and other staff and drugs, to treat patients for the virus.
If the symptoms persist beyond a specified period, then they are advised to revisit the primary health care facilities or the secondary facilities for further treatment. It is never the intention of hospitals to deny anyone access to medical attention at any level. Hospitals are secondary facilities and citizens have not been adequately using them as such. Those with symptoms should follow the necessary guidelines as we use our health services effectively to serve everyone in need.
We must also learn from this experience to clean up our surroundings to prevent future occurrence and rid our environment of breeding sites for mosquitoes and other vectors, which most times is caused by how we irresponsibly dispose of our waste.
We should not blame the minister of health or the Government for our irresponsible action, but instead develop ways to keep our homes, communities and country clean. The millions of dollars the Government has had to spend on clean-up efforts could be better spent on infrastructural development.
Orville Scott
Vice-Chairman
St Ann's Bay Hospital Management Committee
orvillescott@yahoo.com
Attend primary health care facilities first
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