Jamaican mothers and their newborns who would under any other circumstances, have been granted medical staff visits from our hospitals, are being denied this access on account of the where they live. I was shocked when i learnt of this situation, as while i expected this to be the case in Jamaica twenty years ago, i had no idea that in this age of perceived development and progress, our women are having to deal with what i consider to be the height of inequity.

In an article published in the Jamaica Gleaner last week entitled, Wrong Address;Many Jamaicans Still Denied Jobs and Services Because of Where they live, the case of a young couple from the innercity community of Marverly, was highlighted. The young mother, distressed by the reality she is forced to contend with, pointed to the fact that not everyone will be able to afford to visit the health facility with their newborn upon giving birth, to get the medication they need. She alluded to the obvious injustice of being denied access to the very essential services that she contributed her tax dollars towards.

The Chief Executive Officer of the University Hospital of the West Indies, Dr Trevor McCarthney,   when contacted to give credence to this issue, unashamedly confirmed that established hospital policies in Jamaica dictate that hospital staff should not visit patients who live in certain areas such as innercity (ghetto) or rural communities, for various reasons such as hilly terrain and violence. The patients residing in these communities are therefore expected to visit.

Herein lies a clear violation of the rights of the many victims of social and economic exclusion in Jamaica. I am amazed and annoyed even at just how comfortable Dr. McCarthney seems to be with standing by his statements especially in a week when we were to reaffirm "Equal Rights and Opportunity;Progress for all", as purported by this year's International Women's Day theme. A person's home address should never have such a large bearing on whether they are able to access vital services such as comprehensive maternal healthcare. If indeed hospital staff members are unable to access certain communities, a reasonable contingency plan should be developed to ensure that at the end of the day, these mothers are not deprived of the opportunity to access the very services that would prevent them or their child from falling victims to maternal or infant mortality. They should pitch a tent outside the community if that is what it will eventually come down to; i am  sure the Red Cross would be willing to help.

By being a signatory to local and international guidelines and agreements that serve to inform the modus operandi of how health care is delivered, Jamaica has granted in every Jamaican citizen in theory, the right to access to quality healthcare and the right to be protected from discrimination of all sorts. There is however an evident incongruence between the theory and the reality as once again, our policy makers have failed to translate into practice, the conditions of the relevant agreements that they are obligated to fulfill in their effort to safeguard the rights of ALL Jamaicans. It is time we begin to hold these policy makers accountable because as it is now, they are getting away with murder.