Fifty-eight year old Conrad James, who fell off a pedal cycle and suffered a dislocated shoulder at Tumatumari around 7:00 h. on Monday, remained in pain, with no form of relief until around 22:30 h on Tuesday night when he was finally admitted to see a doctor, even though he arrived at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the GPHC around 13:30 h. that day.

After patiently waiting for about ten hours before being ushered into the doctor’s office, he came to realise that he was not looked at before because the triage nurse had indicated on his chart that his case was a ‘non-emergency’.

For Mr. James, that incident was the second such in a series of unpleasant encounters since sustaining his injury on Monday.

The man had been thrown over the handle of his bicycle and landed on his shoulder which fit neatly in a crack on the ground. He recalled that soon after, he set out on a journey to reach the Mahdia Hospital which was several miles away. He eventually got there around 22:00 h on Monday night, but was not treated by the healthcare providers there, since the hospital has no X-Ray facility and it was considered that such a condition necessitated a scan before anything could be done. He was advised to proceed to Georgetown.

Travelling by a not-so-smooth trail and enduring almost unbearable pain for another several hours, he felt relieved on arrival at the GHPC. He felt it was the end of his woes, for he knew full well that the institution has some of the best doctors in the country and state of the art orthopedic facilities, among other things.

However his hopes were dashed when after another ten hours he was still on the waiting list. Several other patients waiting at the facility questioned why they were forced to wait for such long periods. It was politely explained that arriving at the facility early was no guarantee that they would be among the first to be seen by doctor. Rather, it was based on the nature of their emergencies.

The patients understandably expressed appreciation for the principle, and were willing to cooperate. However they claimed they failed to see the rationale behind dispatching strong able-bodied men and women with knee pains, for example, ahead of a bleeding 71-year-old woman, an 18-month-old baby with asthma and vomiting, and a 65-year-old woman vomiting for 45 minutes without relief.

Meanwhile, a 55-year-old diabetic with complications, who should have had a blood-sugar check done before going in to be treated by doctor, was unable to get a reading because the glucometer tester was malfunctioning. The sample was taken at 1:40 h, and at 10:30 h, when it was her time to go into the doctor’ office, the glucometer tester was still unable to read the blood levels and no replacement could be found.

These were but a few of the cases which seemed hard to comprehend at the triage area on Tuesday, as on so many other days, patients complained.