A man who appeared to have fallen unconscious after he was reportedly struck by a vehicle just outside a clinic had to be aided in walking to the health centre after a concerned citizen was told there was no stretcher there.
The accident occurred just yards from Campden Park Clinic around 10:21 a.m. Thursday.
A member of the public went to the clinic shortly after the accident but was told that there was no stretcher there.
The man, a Vincentian who is based overseas, expressed shock at such a situation.
iWitness News came up on the accident shortly after it occurred, and even as the man, who appeared to be unconscious, was lying on the road, near the vehicle.
The man, a Barrouallie resident, was reportedly struck by the vehicle, P6355, a pickup, as he was crossing the street.
Immediately after the incident, the injured man, who had what appeared to be blood coming from his forehead, was lying unresponsive on the hot road.
Sometime later, he began to move and persons were of differing opinions about whether they should take him to the health centre themselves or wait for a response from until the staff there.
The first staff member of the clinic to respond was a community health worker, who someone quickly asked whether there was a nurse at the clinic.
A nurse arrived at the scene shortly after.
By this time, the injured man had become responsive and some persons aided him in walking to the clinic.
An off-duty police officer who happened to have been passing by took control of the scene and marked where the injured man had fallen and where the vehicle had stopped after the incident.
A health care practitioner in St. Vincent and the Grenadines told iWitness News that while many clinics in the country do not have a stretcher, it is not unreasonable to expect that they would have one.
He said this is apart from any stretcher that might be inside an ambulance.
The healthcare professional said that stretchers are important in transporting injured persons, especially seeing that injuries suffered might have lasting implications for their mobility.
There is just no end to such unbelievable news in SVG, especially where it concerns Health Care. The Government needs to start getting thier priorities straight. I wonder what the other members on the Security Council would think if they were told these things about our country. There is enough money for our political elites and Foreign-based staff in New York to live in luxury, but not enough money for stretchers for Health Clinics.
Has no one in the Government Health Department ever considered that a Clinic just may need a stretcher for possible accidents in the community? What if a car accident occured with multiple injuries to multiple victims?
What if the rest of the world should find out how our government does things here?
This is st Vincent, this is st Vincent, this is Sr Vincent.
AM A VINCENTIAN WHO IS BASED OVER SEAS, I WORK IN THE MEDICAL FIELD. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR A MEDICAL FACILITY NOT TO HAVE A STRETCHER AVAILABLE…DID ANYONE CHECKED FOR A WHEELCHAIR SINCE THERE WAS NO STRETCHER?
It you working in the medical field as stated you would have known that the victim should not be moved whether a wheel chair of stretcher existed or not unless some one present is a trained First Responder. Moving an injured person without such trained person could make any injured sustained by that person worst which could lead to death of paralysis.
I THINK THAT ALL OVERSEAS BASE VINCY SHOULD TRY TO HELP IN OUR MEDICAL FACILITIES THERE…AM AN EQUIPMENT TECHNICIAN IN ONE OF THE BEST US MEDICAL HOSPITALS…I KNOW ABOUT ALL THE BROKEN EQUIPMENT THAT IS THERE THAT NEED MANTAINANCE..IT HURTS ME KNOWING WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MY ISLAND AND THERE ARE LOT OF US WITH THE SKILLS TO RUN THE HOSPITAL AND CLINICS
When he gets in the clinic, no stretcher will only the beginning of the list of what they do not have there.
If this man had a broken back or neck he could become paralyzed due to being walked into the clinic.
Pointless looking for the minister of health Browne, he is in India donating extra stretchers to village clinics. They already have some but extras may come in useful.
Yet we have money to open a embassy in Taiwan.what a shame now serve vincentians frist then others this is an insult mr !
Exactly…ikr!
This is what we call labour love!!!!
Labor love ❤️
Wat ah country
Wat ah government
Everyday is something else
We can’t get everything we have to make some sacrifices
Hotels coming
We can’t do both
This is what to expect when trips abroad by the administration is more valued over and above a walk in our villages. When the economic policy pursued by our government is one of begging abroad over and above good economic planning here at home.
This is what to expect when one family is allowed to run a non-accountable dictatorship for near on twenty years.
History is littered with such examples of gross failure but Vincentians is yet to learn to their cost from those examples, even though some are on their very door steps.
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/state-venezuelan-displacement-starvation-multiply-190819211122417.html
Vincentians have sleepwalked for the past nineteen years into their own nightmare when it comes to health care. The consequence of dictatorships on Healthcare are all too common as is the case in Turkmenistan as was noted in 2007.
“There is a health crisis in Turkmenistan similar to, but more severe than, in other Central Asian countries. This paper asks whether the health crisis in Turkmenistan is attributable to the consequences of the dictatorship under president Niyazov, who died in 2006.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1948003/
Were we able to learn from history perhaps we would have been able to avoid the mess we are in.
Yes James, it is very strange about how healthcare systems of dictatorships are portrayed. There are good things and bad things. The USA has advanced healthcare but most of the country cannot afford it. There are certain undeniable shortcomings in SVG but the good thing is, even if you have to wait an entire day, you will at least be seen by a doctor…often impossible in the USA unless you mave good insurance or lots of money. I know little about Cuba but from what I have seen it can be good and it can be terrible. Possibly the best compromise is the system in the country of Belarus. Until recently foreigners could go there and after paying 5.US$ for insurance, get treatment that costs 50,000.$ in the USA. Now foreigners have to pay, even though it is 90% cheaper than in the USA. The British go to places like Bulgaria to get thier teeth done. The Germans go to, or used to, go to Spain.
The SVG Government has not yet realized that they could allow Duty-Free for equipment and materials of Medical products to bring the price down and attract what so many governments in the world do…COUNTRIES TO INCLUDE NOT ONLY THOSE MENTIONED BUT ALSO ISRAEL AND ANTIGUA… Medical Tourism! At the same time that would not only vastly improve Health Care in SVG but it would make it more affordable for locals, and bring tourists.
Many governments, of course are incapable of thinking outside the box. I have seen so many opportunities where SVG could have profited immensely but most always we do the opposite and lose instead.
Why some of us like to make somethings political or government issues. Some of us like to point finger at the present government, but regardless of present government or past government this is a shortness of sight from all of us. Before NDP and after NDP clinics never had stretchers in any clinic in the country. The reason this was and is so, is because the clinics designated purpost was never intended to be use for serious cases of illnesses and very serious life threatening injuries. Should they have stretchers? Yes they should in a modern society we are lining today. The blame is on all of us so because past government and present government clinics never had them.
AFWS, Are you saying that our clinics have not and should not have evolved since the Mitchell years 20 years ago? Why is that and whose fault is that? The ULP has already mentioned that Medical Care is low on the priority list. THEY HAVE ADMITTED THIS! The same is true with roads.
Please stop trying to fool the readers by saying our “leaders” carry NO blame. Should we just continue as we are and not do anything? Who should be responsible for improving our healthcare…the Royal Navy? Maybe the Japanese Women’s Association for Single Mothers? Something tells me that the SVG Health Department is better positioned to do that and they happen to be a part of the government.
Stop making excuses for the short-sighted thinking of our “leaders”.