JFK Recent Policy On Patients’ Caregivers Needs Revision

On May 23, 2025, the management team at Liberia’s biggest referral hospital, John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital issued a press statement informing the public that the medical institution has made significant improvements in service delivery, and have resolved longstanding issues such as medication and supply shortages, which previously required caregivers to remain nearby to assist patients.

  In giving further explication on the administrative edict put in vogue by the medical center to strengthen internal systems, the JFK Medical Center management stressed that to further enhance the safety, cleanliness, and overall care environment at JFKMC, effective June 1, 2025, caregivers and family members will no longer be permitted to stay overnight or reside on the hospital compound.

  This decision by the JFKMC has created a serious consternation between that institution and the caregivers that provide very relevant services to their sick love ones once they are admitted at the facility.

 The JFKMC said the unauthorized occupancy has led to significant environmental and public health issues, posing serious risks to patients, staff and visitors alike.

 In driving home, the raison d’être for the introduction of this policy, the JFK management stressed that while facility deeply values the vital role of family support in the healing process of patients, it wishes to kindly remind the public to observe the following hospital guidelines:

Patient nutrition is a critical part of medical care. Providing food to patients without medical approval is strictly prohibited, as it may compromise their safety and recovery;

Visiting hours are strictly from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily.

 The medical team assured Liberians that these measures are part of ongoing efforts to improve patient care, uphold public health standards, and safeguard hospital resources.

  Agreed that the current management team purpose of launching this policy at the chief medical facility is well intentioned, the need to review and reappraise the policy is urgent and actually worth immediate remedial action to be taken in order to enhance the rapprochement between patients’ caregivers and the management at the facility.

  As it stands, there seems to be misunderstanding between the JFKMC and caregivers in the implementation of the aforementioned policy.

  Recently, some patients’ caregivers complained on the social media that they were thrown out of the JFKMC compound by medical workers, because they (Medical Workers) claimed that Caregivers were keeping the hospital compound untidy, and causing unnecessary disturbance, thus making the hospital compound uncomfortable for the administering of treatment to patients.

  Explaining her ordeal to news men recently in Johnsonville Township, a patient caregiver only known as Ma Bendu said, she along with some family members took one of their sick relatives to JFK for medical attention, but were asked to leave the institution compound after 5:00 p.m. She said, they left and sort refuge around the Lucky Pharmacy across the main road.

  Madam Bendu also said, while they were across the road resting to see their love ones the next day, some nurses came from the hospital and begun to call on them by name to go into the JFK fence and attend to their patients.

  Ma Bendu asserted that some patients are unable to attend to themselves except they are assisted by their family members who are caregivers, and if they are not in the compound, their relatives encountered problems, because the nurses are always on Facebook, and care less for patients who are often reeking in pain.

 We monitored other radio stations where scores of patients’ caregivers have complained of the sufferings their love ones go through as a result of this new policy introduced by the JFKMC.

 In the wake of this misunderstanding and inherent tussle subsisting between the JFK Management and the Caregivers, ‘Yours Truly’ wishes to use this write up to make some recommendations that could help reduce the tension and avert any snowballing conflict between staff of the JFKMC and patients’ caregivers.

  We are humble to recommend that the JFKMC Management Team build a special unit in the forecourt of the medical facilities to host caregivers, who are essential in the treatment of patients who by all indications are most likely unable to care for themselves while going through treatment prescription. Some patients are even unable to attend to nature unless they are assisted by a caregiver.

 So, you see, given the hullabaloo that have ensued on the heels of the introduction of the policy on caregiver’s restriction during visitation at the JFKMC, there is an urgent need for a review of that policy.

 Established in 1971, and named after the 35th President of the United States, JFKMC has been dedicated to delivering top-tier healthcare services, and training the nation’s health professionals for over four decades. We therefore hope this trend continues under the current management team.

  A picturesque outlook of the JFKMC presents the institution as a medical facility that includes a 500 bed Memorial Hospital, the Tubman National Institute of Medical Arts (TNIMA) for paramedical education, the 150-bed Catherine Mills Rehabilitation Center (now the Edward S. Grant Mental Health Hospital) for mental health and a 250-bed Liberian-Japanese Friendship Maternity Hospital, specializing in maternal and child health.

  Admittedly, the JFKMC is by all indication, the country’s premier and leading institutions for the provision of advance medical care and education.

  As a medical institution committed to providing exceptional healthcare to the people of Liberia, and the West African region, the current impasse between the patients’ caregivers and the JFKMC does not augur well for medical delivery in the land of our birth.

We want to passionately appeal to the management of the JFKMC to employ dexterity and rapidly resolve this embarrassing episode.

Factoid: Patients care in the country is largely supported by family members when they are admitted at a medical facility.