Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter

With the abolition of user fees to commence April 1, health-care personnel at clinics have expressed concern that adequate plans were not in place to handle the expected increase in patients.

The Gleaner visited two clinics in Kingston, Comprehensive Health Centre on Slipe Pen Road and the East Queen Street Clinic. Both seemed to be coping with the current workload although there was a limited number of medical staff running the facility.

Dr Clive Anderson, one of two full-time doctors practising in the STI department at Comprehensive Health Centre, said that health care should be free. However, he is cognisant of the challenges and constraints that would come with the impending changes.

"I have patients who say they can't pay the user fee and travel. So I think it's a good idea, but I think it is important how we implement it, or else patient care will suffer as doctors and nurses will have to spend less time with each patient to deal with the numbers," he said.

According to Dr Anderson, the only way to cope with the demand that will ensue is to increase staff complement across the board, otherwise patient care will be affected.

"We are trying to see how we can improve the throughputs to the clinic in terms of getting records at a faster pace and getting lab tests done efficiently, so that we are able to see more patients a little more quickly."

Increase in staff

He continued, "We are trying to make more appointments, but without an increase in staff, there is just so much we will be able to do without sacrificing patient care."

Our news team observed that on average each patient waits up to three hours before receiving a general assessment, proceeding to register, and if required collecting prescription at the under-staffed pharmacies.

The equipment appeared to be sufficient enough to deal with the diagnostic capabilities required of a health centre.

Currently, the clinics can see up to 60-70 patients a day during the operating hours of 8 a.m.-4.30 p.m., with those who were not seen receiving appointments to attend the following day.

At East Street Clinic, there appeared to be mostly women and senior citizens of a low socio-economic status.

Of the five sections that make up the facilities of the clinic, the registration and pharmacy departments are the most crowded.

Marsha Thomas Hope, mother of two, was at Comprehensive seeking medical help for her daughter's chest cough.

She commended the improve-ments made to the management of queues and facilities, but still felt the waiting time was too long.

"I came here from 5:30 a.m. this morning, I got a ticket number 15 and left to come back for 8:30 p.m. only to get No 43 as I missed my turn, which is my fault. But it is now 10 o'clock and we are just registering."

Service quality

Hyacinth Campbell brought her daughter to the clinic on Wednesday. "I came here about 9 o'clock and am now leaving (11 a.m.). I brought my daughter here for her immunisation and felt that we moved quickly, compared to when I come here for myself, so I think next week will probably be worse," she said.

Others, however, feel that they will not be affected by the abolition of user fees as a mother who brought her child to the clinic explained.

"I do not use the health-care system because they are too slack. I don't use the system for anything other than my daughter, so it does not make a difference to me," she said.