Who knew many moons ago, when he wrote “nothing is we business until it reach crisis”, how valid was Boo Hinkson’s observation? No matter, it is unlikely our nation’s premier guitarist-composer anticipated the rampant abuse by overly ambitious dreamers, to the extent that “crisis” has been denuded of its true meaning, turned by handicapped power seekers into a campaign weapon for manipulating the egregiously dumb.
The noun “crisis” comes from the Latinized form of the Greek word krisis, meaning “turning point in a disease.” How ironic, then, that Boo had chosen to associate it in song with business, defined as “a person’s regular occupation, profession, or trade”—without which he or she could be denied vital bread and in consequence justice and freedom. As for the Greek reference to krisis and disease, another irony, keeping in mind the predilection in some quarters for marrying local healthcare with “crisis.” As if indeed there was ever a time when the healthcare situation in Saint Lucia was not critical.
Of course, those who feed off the C-word might say: “Oh, yes, healthcare was always bad but it’s worse today.” And the assertion would not be altogether without merit. But then there is hardly a service you might mention that back in the day was by regular measure satisfactory.
As many mothers died from delivery complications pre-Internet as die today. Unforgettable is the case of the Soufriere couple who drove to the town’s hospital to deliver their baby, only to be told they could not be accommodated at the inn, for whatever insane reason. Mother and child were left to die unattended on the pavement outside the government facility. Of course, as is the custom, not a head rolled in consequence.
Long before the Soufriere nightmare the late health minister Romanus Lansiquot had not only talked the talk for improved healthcare, he had also walked the walk despite public ridicule encouraged by the opposing party. In the time of Dr. Winston Parris, there were constant complaints published in this newspaper about the intolerable conditions at Victoria Hospital, for patients and medical personnel. I need add that I refer to the early 80s. By 1997, the situation had deteriorated enough to move doctors Carol Bristol and Stephen King to mount what they described as “a campaign for healthcare reform.” Politicians made them countless promises that proved empty. One doctor fell exhausted and frustrated by the wayside. A hospital named for his partner’s departed father was expected to be operational before the end of 2015. Alas, that promise too died on the vine.
In the interim broke and desperate administrations imagined the healthcare horrors might be ameliorated if patients paid a small fee. The idea was a disaster, thanks in great part to politicians self-servingly convincing their followers that not only was healthcare the responsibility only of the government but that available services should be free. Within a few years Victoria Hospital’s debts had gone through the roof, largely because of unpaid bills.
Lord alone knows how the privately owned Tapion hospital remained open. The bad publicity alone from irate patients and their relatives, both about the hospital’s fees and its cash in advance policy, threatened the facility’s existence. Like general healthcare, Tapion confronted its own daily crises. Throughout all of that, even when two doctors were on the advisory staff of the health ministry, little was heard from the politicians, save when there were political nuts to be gathered at the expense of the day’s administration.
I should add that by the early 80s the U.S. sponsored St. Jude Hospital was but a shell of its former self, for several reasons not necessarily relevant to this particular report. I speak again of the time of Romanus Lansiquot. Then came the fire in 2009. Miraculously, only three patients died as a result. The survivors, as is common knowledge, were transferred to what was intended to serve only as temporary accommodation: the George Odlum sports stadium, built with Taiwanese money and with only the fittest in mind. Forgive the possible redundancy, dear reader, and permit me to say the previously existing healthcare crisis grew even worse. After all, a crisis is a crisis is a crisis!
We need not go into the most familiar mephitic political blame game that has followed the failure of the Kenny Anthony government to deliver to Saint Lucia, to the people of the south especially, “a state of the art hospital that will be the envy of the region.” The day’s prime minister and his health minister appeared regularly on TV to brag about the several impediments and official miscalculations they had encountered and overcome en route, but were positioned finally to say the hospital would be delivered “before the end of 2015.”
We know only too well that the government did not keep its promise, that it chose instead to call in June 2016 a snap election that caught even its leading soldiers with their pants around their boots. It should be remembered that the government could’ve waited another year or so to go to the polls and concentrated instead on delivering a completed St. Jude. Obviously Kenny & Company miscalculated and now are desperately seeking to make political hay by heaping all of the blame for “the worst healthcare crisis” on the Chastanet administration, for not having done by now what their predecessors had failed to do over five years.
Which is not to say the Chastanet government is altogether blameless. It had campaigned on its promise to deliver what the Kenny Anthony administration had not. By my measure, the campaigning Chastanet crew must’ve—or should have—known the true state of St. Jude and notified voters of what they planned to do about the hospital upon taking office. In all events, it is long past time for action at both the OKEU and St. Jude. Enough palavering. Enough already of the blame game.
And yes, enough of trying to turn crises—real or conveniently imagined—into wine, not to say employment opportunities for demonstrably the most untalented, dangerously addicted to powerless power in our midst!
