Wezi Tjaronda
CREDIT should be given where it is due indeed.
I am now thinking of the Katutura Hospital reception area, which after renovations has a more patient friendly atmosphere.
Compared to the previous bleak and miserable looking white washed walls, beautiful pictures of various scenery depicting Namibia adorn the walls, at least giving visitors and patients something pleasant to look at.
However, I think more could have been done to make the whole hospital as friendly as the reception area.
I am talking here about easy access to the wards, cleanliness and also the sometimes-not-so-friendly staff. Those not familiar with how the lifts at the Katutura State Hospital work can easily wait for up to half an hour before they realise that for some reason the lifts are not working.
It is unfortunate to have people breathlessly climb the staircase up to the last floor to see their loved ones.
Unfortunately, it is not only visitors that go to see their relatives but also patients themselves that are subjected to having to use the staircase.
If meagre resources the responsible ministry gets is to blame for this, how about the black refuse bags, broken beds and other things that are left scattered along the corridors? Cleanliness, they say, is nearer to Godliness and especially for a place that keeps sick people, in my view should be spotlessly clean.
I am shocked to read that the poor conditions of some hospitals are being blamed on cleaners. Cleaners, I would have thought are employed to clean and suppose they do not do their work, don’t they have supervisors who should ensure that the work they were employed for gets done to the best of their ability?
One of the long-serving leaders of a country in Southern Africa once said, “If you are a cleaner, be the best cleaner that this world ever had.”
Good job opportunities in our country are scarce but when we find ourselves in any menial job we should bear in mind that “I should work to deserve any pay at the end of the month”.
Much of that said, a little friendliness goes a long way in easing pain. I have read lots about the problems that hospital personnel go through as they carry out their duties. But as humans I think we know how to go an extra mile to make life easier for others. I salute those that have gone against all odds to get their work done.
They say it takes many more muscles for a person to frown that it takes to smile.
It is also said “Frown and you frown alone, smile and the whole world smiles with you”.
It also true that “One smile is worth a dozen frowns and among the world’s expensive things a smile is very cheap and when you give a smile away, you get one back to keep.”
So please keep smiling because the patients, who are clients of the hospitals, need it.
Eeeewa!