Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 07, 2018 (SKNIS): Minister of State with responsibility for Health, the Honourable Wendy Phipps, speaking at the “People’s Forum” Town Hall Meeting on March 06 at the Sandy Point Community Centre, lauded the Team Unity Government for its achievements in improving community based healthcare.
“In three short years, your government has been able to make significant strides in terms of improving the health outcomes, the provision of health related services for the benefit of our people,” said Minister Phipps, as she announced that the Pogson Hospital in Sandy Point will now be the home to the national hub for an In-Service Training and Capacity Building Programme to improve the community health nursing and medical programmes in the federation.
Minister Phipps stressed the importance of the government and the people coming together to address national health concerns and said that, “if we are accepting the fact that we have a problem with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), by extension, it means we have to do more by going into the communities to find people where they are, find them where they live and have them checked.”
The minister also highlighted some noteworthy achievements of the government over the past three years. She lauded the Ministry of Health for its achievement in Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission (EMTCT) of HIV and Syphilis validation, as well as the addition of a new CT scan and MRI services with the help of private sector partnership.
She further commended the government for its commitment to the improvement of community based healthcare services with the renovation of the Mary Charles Hospital in Molineux and the Opening of the Dr. Arthur W. Lake Mental Health Day Treatment Centre at Limekiln.