As a regular visitor to this institution, the need for this desk could not be over remphasised, albeit, a crucial juncture of the hospital’s strive to improve its image, through several strategies including that of fostering better relations with those who visit there for various reasons.

The public seems to appreciate this latest development, knowing the desk can reduce some of the fatigues people endure in trying to access services, reducing the time they spend in gazing around for departments and services. It is indeed an important guide.

However, our minds must stretch beyond the desk as there are other serious issues involved among which accountability is perhaps the most important of all. The opening up of this facility will undoubtedly encourage greater scrutiny of the hospital’s role and functions, a challenge management ought to have prepared itself for, before making the decision they did. The general public, some for good reasons, others with different motives, sinister and all, are going to probe issues taking advantage of the purpose of the desk. This is where the test is, the results of which will be determined by the manner these approaches are handled.

If management is smart, as I believe it is, then this desk could become a success story in the hospital’s history as it could be utilised at maximum, to demonstrate the will to create new precedents in dealing with the public. All along we knew the hospital needed this.

There has been a significant change from those years when the hospital attracted only purely sensational negative publicity which in a way was representative of a major decline of its services. But still there is a stereotyped outlook of the institution because of those years and it is still a far way from being erased. Nevertheless, the hospital has to continue finding ways to avoid people from ignoring its changing face.
Carolyn Ross-Noble