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By Nakinskie Robinson
The Old Harbour Health Centre in St. Catherine is offering limited services as staff grapple with infrastructural challenges.
Added to that, staff and patients have been falling ill from the intense heat after air conditioning units failed at the facility more than a month ago.
Healthcare workers at the facility say only patients with immediate emergencies can be treated given the facility's current capacity and resources.
Patients have been advised to seek medical assistance at the May Pen and Spanish Town hospitals or at private medical centres.
"If we do not have what we need to function effectively then we are unable to offer service. So those persons who are here for dressings, we will give you packs to assist to clean up and freshen up your wound. Or if your wound is something that is surgical and it needs to be dealt with, then you would have to go to the nearest health centre to you or hospital to you for them to do it, or your private doctor until we are back to full operations," a member of staff at the health centre told patients during a devotional exercise on Friday.
Patients have grown frustrated with the lack of resources at the health centre which they say has been ongoing for at least three weeks.
One patient, while commending the staff for their commitment, noted that some of the workers have also been passing out from the sweltering heat at the facility.
She called for the authorities to quickly address the issues plaguing the health centre.
"[The staff] cope wid wi long enough and them becoming sick because yuh know seh di sun a get hot more than anything nowadays.... Even we as patient, if we go in dere suh, wi guh in deh sick and in deh mek wi sicker than how wi sick because in deh too hot, yuh understand? So dem need to deal wid di situation," she pleaded.
Another patient said for months she has been redirected to other facilities.
But she said she is unable to seek treatment elsewhere due to her condition and inadequate finances.
"Mi stomach a kill mi, mi cyah even stand up and a pay mi pay taxi come round here only to know no doctor, no service. Everytime mi come up here, is the same situation: no doctor, no service, nothing going on here."