Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

Pa­tients at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (SFGH) have not been fed cooked food over the last week. Checks on sev­er­al of the wards at the health in­sti­tu­tion by Sun­day Guardian last week con­firmed that pa­tients were be­ing fed bread for their three square meals. They al­so have the op­tion of a side of their choice, which in­cludes tu­na, chan­na, cheese or but­ter.

Hos­pi­tal sources said main­te­nance works were be­ing car­ried out in the kitchen, which has led to the pa­tients be­ing fed bread. "We are get­ting bread and chan­na, bread and cheese or bread and but­ter. The nurs­es on­ly told us that some­thing is wrong with the equip­ment in the kitchen, that is why we are be­ing fed bread. Some of us are not sup­posed to be eat­ing bread but we have no choice be­cause they don't even want us to eat food from out­side," a pa­tient who called the Sun­day Guardian com­plained.

An­oth­er pa­tient lament­ed, "My daugh­ter brought food for me but a nurse told me if my blood pres­sure in­creased they would not be re­spon­si­ble, but I am not even sup­posed to be eat­ing bread as part of my di­et." Con­firm­ing the sit­u­a­tion yes­ter­day, Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rosan­na Robin­son told Sun­day Guardian that main­te­nance works were re­spon­si­ble for the sit­u­a­tion.

"I was told that there is a prob­lem with a valve in the kitchen but I have been in­formed that re­pairs are be­ing con­duct­ed as we speak. I was in­formed that the work­ers were fac­ing ex­treme­ly haz­ardous con­di­tions and the re­pairs need­ed to be con­duct­ed. I have been as­sured that every­thing is be­ing put in­to place to en­sure that pa­tients re­ceive their re­quired meals," Robin­son said.

SFGH chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Anil Go­sine told Sun­day Guardian yes­ter­day that the main­te­nance works had be­come nec­es­sary. "Main­te­nance works are be­ing car­ried out on the steam pots and we are re­plac­ing some tiles. We have a con­trac­tor work­ing 24 hours and we are try­ing to rec­ti­fy the prob­lem in the short­est pos­si­ble time. Nev­er­the­less, while the main­te­nance works are nec­es­sary, we are work­ing with di­eti­cians to en­sure that pa­tients are giv­en their re­quired in­take even if they are be­ing fed bread," Go­sine said.

Khan: It's un­ac­cept­able!

But the sit­u­a­tion is not sit­ting well with Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Khan who said the sit­u­a­tion was un­ac­cept­able. Ad­mit­ting he was not briefed on the mat­ter, Khan said main­te­nance work­ers were be­ing paid to rec­ti­fy such sit­u­a­tions with­in hours. "Main­te­nance work­ers are high­ly paid and I would ex­pect if such a sit­u­a­tion oc­curs, mea­sures are put in­to place to en­sure pa­tients are prop­er­ly fed. If a part needs to be sourced, then the di­rec­tors and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer sup­pose to know what should be done.

"Feed­ing pa­tients bread for three square meals at a hos­pi­tal is ab­solute­ly un­ac­cept­able! At a hos­pi­tal I would ex­pect that pa­tients are fed ac­cord­ing to their di­ets. I am go­ing to im­me­di­ate­ly en­quire about the rea­son be­hind this," Khan said.