AmCham Place, the home of the Edna Manley Clinic in Grants Pen, St Andrew. - file

FOR THREE days a week, Natalie Madu travels from her home in Jacks Hill, St Andrew, to the Edna Manley Clinic in Grants Pen to seek treatment for her asthmatic one-year-old son.

She says both trip and medication for the toddler are a toll on her slim resources. No surprise then, that the mother of two children is counting the days to April 1 when government will abolish user fees on items such as medication and diagnostic services at public hospitals and clinics.

'I'm really looking forward to it. The medication is the biggest problem, it's very expensive," Madu said.

Madu sat at the rear of a half-packed hall at the Edna Manley Clinic which was inhabited by mostly low-income patients including young mothers and seniors.

Foresees chaos

Myrna Lindo, whose thoughts on the abolition of user fees are mixed, sat mid-row with her grandson Ajay who had chicken pox. She foresees chaos at the clinic on Tuesday when user fees become a thing of the past.

"It's going to be a rush, everybody is going to be here. I don't know how the poor nurses are going to cope," she said.

Ease on medication cost

Delesia Honeywell is also expecting a mad scene at the clinic next week. A sickle-cell patient, her visits there are not frequent, but she told The Gleaner that the lifting of user fees will make buying medication considerably easier for her.

Honeywell said the abolition of user fees will help some persons, but believes "there are still some things you must pay for".

Last week, the Ministry of Health placed an ad in The Gleaner seeking health-care workers to man the perceived rush at locations where user fees will be scrapped.

Despite several calls to his office, The Gleaner could not get a comment from Godfrey Boyd, parish manager of the Kingston and St Andrew Health Department, on whether the clinic will benefit from increased numbers.