Healthcare Neglect – By Kisean Joseph
Healthcare Neglect John Rural
Residents of St John’s Rural West are confronting a deepening healthcare crisis – their Member of Parliament said, that has been building for years — marked by a deteriorating community clinic, a dental facility that is effectively closed, and a string of government promises that have yet to materialize.
MP Richard Lewis, speaking on Observer AM, laid the blame firmly at the feet of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party administration, saying the neglect has been so severe that he has repeatedly dipped into his own pocket to address failures he said are the government’s responsibility.
At the centre of his concerns is the Gray’s Farm Clinic, which Lewis described as seriously rundown. He said that the building has not been properly maintained, medical supplies are chronically short, and conditions have declined sharply — to the point where he personally purchased sealant to stop leaking in the roof.
“What we have today is a sad situation where the buildings — both medical and dental — have not been properly maintained,” Lewis said. “One time, I had to purchase a sealant, large buckets of sealant, to seal the roof of the clinic to prevent leaking. That’s not my job; that’s the government’s job. But I had to step in to do that.”
He contrasted this with what he described as a period of reliable healthcare under the United Progressive Party administration of former Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, during which night clinic services, a functioning pharmacy, and a dental clinic were all established. He dismissed current talk of restoring night clinic services as election posturing, saying no serious planning has taken place behind the promise.
“I hear the talk of night clinic returning,” Lewis said. “However, that is just talk because the elections are imminent. My understanding is that there has been no serious dialogue regarding the logistics of how this is going to work. I just see that as an election promise — or just to do something, and right after the elections, cut it again. Because that is what they are known for.”
The dental clinic tells a similar story. Now functionally closed, residents requiring extractions or cleanings must travel outside the community — to Glanvilles or Villa — where Lewis says many return without receiving the care they need.
“The dental clinic established under Baldwin Spencer is basically closed,” he said. “If you have a toothache, you can go a couple of days in the mornings to get a prescription. That is all. So if you have an extraction to do or cleaning, you have to go out of the community. That is unheard of.”
Lewis proposed using rooms at the community centre as a temporary home for dental services while a longer-term solution is worked out.
The MP further charged that a satellite clinic in Five Islands, once designed to bring healthcare to elderly residents in that area, was also closed by the current administration and has never been restored despite lobbying. He further charged that a promise to expand the Gray’s Farm Clinic under the Green Climate Fund has gone completely unfulfilled.
“There was a promise made by this ABLP administration to establish or to expand the clinic under the Green Climate Fund,” Lewis said. “Years and years and years — and every time I bring it up, they say it is going to happen. It is not going to happen.”
