My dearest nurses of the SFGH,
As we celebrate the birth of the Divine Jesus and as we come to the end of another exciting year, I wish, as medical director of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation for the great work that you all have done for the past year.
Make no bones about it, we have achieved a lot during the past year and this is in part because of the admirable performance of you, the nurses, who have served with dedication, devotion and commitment notwithstanding the shortage of nursing personnel that has plagued our hospital for quite some time now.
In keeping with our organisation’s mission of being customer-focused and indeed, customer-obsessed, I have had cause to interact with many of you during the past year on the wards, in the clinics, in the operating theatres, in the nursing administration’s office and elsewhere in order to address the concerns of patients. Thank you very much indeed for all the help that you have given me for without you, my task of addressing the concerns of patients would have been that much more difficult.
You have been wonderful and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a happy, holy Christmas and a happy, productive New Year.
Working in a healthcare institution as the SFGH provides us all with the blessed opportunity of receiving the Lord’s grace and blessings, for when we look after the poor, the needy and the forlorn, the disadvantaged and the diseased who come seeking our assistance, we are in fact following in the footsteps of the Divine Jesus who knew that to serve God in each individual is to serve society and to serve society is to serve God directly.
Jesus’ heart melted in sympathy whenever He saw anyone suffering for He was the embodiment of compassion and love. We all should strive to be like Him, myself included.
The SFGH as a public healthcare institution is second to none in T&T and that, to a large extent, is because of you, for at the end of the day, it is the nurses who run a hospital and it is the nurses who, in the main, attend to the needs of the 750 patients who inhabit this august institution, this temple of healing that is the SFGH.
And yet, I am only too well aware that your job is not always pleasant or easy. During the past year, the challenges have been many but somehow in your creativity, and your innovativeness, you have been able to surmount the many obstacles that have come your way and to serve our patients with care, sympathy, compassion and concern. So many of you, feeling the pain and disappointment in the hearts of patients who have been denied surgery that was promised to them, have not hesitated to send them to the office of the medical director for help and guidance. For that, I am deeply appreciative.
I thank you lovingly and sincerely from the bottom of my heart, dearly beloved nurses and look forward with eagerness and excitement to working closely with you for another year, notwithstanding the challenges that are certain to come our way. But, life itself is a challenge and so, let’s meet it.
As I close, I urge and implore you not to hesitate to teach and encourage our doctors to fill their hearts with compassion and to serve the poor and the needy. Teach our doctors by your example not to be stone-hearted and money-minded for when the hour of reckoning comes, can anyone carry with him/her the wealth he or she has amassed? No.
Let us all continue to serve the poor with love for that alone can redeem us. Service to the poor is service to God and may God give us all the strength, the courage and the determination to continue to sacrifice our lives for the cause of the poor, the needy and the forlorn, the diseased, the distressed and the disadvantaged who seek refuge, healing and solace at the prestigious San Fernando General Hospital.
Dr Anand Chatoorgoon,
Medical Director, SFGH