WE are quite relieved that the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) has reversed its earlier decision not to admit Ms Shantoy Lawrence for critical heart surgery.

At the same time, we are cautious about the change in the hospital’s position as it has not been made clear by the UHWI whether the 14-year-old Cambridge High School student would receive the surgery before the end of this year.

Readers will recall that Ms Lawrence has been diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, more commonly known as a hole in the heart.

An appeal via the pages of our sister title, the Observer West, for US$1,250 for an open heart kit and J$497,000 in hospital fees received overwhelming response from our readers here and overseas within days.

The upshot was that, having first carried Ms Lawrence’s story on November 5 we were able, on November 12, to report ‘Mission accomplished’ — all the funds that were needed were raised. In fact, a Kingston businessman and businesswoman had underwritten the total cost for the hospital, as well as for the surgery.

That so many people responded to this young girl’s plight, particularly in this harsh economic climate, speaks to a sense of caring for others, among Jamaicans, that is really encouraging. And each time that it appears that this country is losing hope in the ability of our people to display strength of character, we should reflect on the response to Ms Lawrence and others like her who have sought — through the media — and received public assistance for their plight.

That, therefore, was why we were so disappointed when we learnt that the UHWI was unable to accommodate Ms Lawrence until next year because of the busy holiday season.

According to the hospital, the surgery could not be done before January 7, 2010.

A week ago, we reported Dr Roger Irving, the doctor leading Shantoy’s medical team, as saying that “Operations are conducted on Thursdays. This Thursday, Christmas Eve is out of the question, because the holiday period is not a good time to conduct operations of this nature as the staff is reduced, there are no guarantees that she’d have the proper support in terms of a nurse, bed, blood etc.”

Dr Irving said also said that next Thursday, New Year’s Eve, was also out of the question for the same reason. “Barring the unforeseen, we should be operating on the first Thursday in January,” he added.

However, on December 24, we reported a member of the UHWI’s cardiology/cardiothoracic team as saying that the hospital was prepared to re-admit Ms Lawrence, pending an available date for her heart surgery.

But therein lies our concern. For, as we said, the hospital has not indicated whether Ms Lawrence will receive the surgery before the original January 7 date given by Dr Irving. We shudder to think what could happen before.

Which leads us to a broader question. Why is there only one day set aside each week for operations? Are we to understand that our health delivery system is so inflexible that if someone is in need of life-saving surgery that person must wait until the day when operations are carried out?

Ms Lawrence’s case has also served to highlight the fact that the State is not giving the quality of our health care service the importance it deserves. For if the opposite were true, our leaders would have no reason to be air-ambulanced abroad for treatment whenever they fall ill.

We have no doubt that the talent that resides in our health professionals here is exceptional. It’s the facilities that they lack, regrettably.