BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, June 29, 2020 (Press Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister) – Persons residing in Tabernacle village and the surrounding communities are already benefiting from the new and improved services being offered at the recently commissioned Sylvia Garnette Primary Healthcare Facility, located at Station Street, Tabernacle.
The facility, which offers a wide range of primary health care services including antenatal and postnatal services, family planning, diabetes and hypertension management and district medical officer consultations and HIV/AIDS prevention, was named in honour of nursing stalwart, Mrs. Sylvia Garnette, a resident of Tabernacle who spent more than two decades in the public service as a nursing professional.
Resident of Tabernacle village, Ms. Tuvia Griffin, while commenting on the opening of the new facility, noted “I am glad to see that we’ve come out of the little basement [beneath the Tabernacle Daycare Center] over there and now we have a brand new big facility because healthcare is very important so I’m glad that the prime minister really came through for us.”
Another Tabernacle resident, who frequently uses the services of the health center, said he is proud of how far health care has advanced in his community in just a few years under the Team Unity administration, adding that, “The health system that we had here wasn’t up to any good standard. The prime minister took a good look at his surrounding and decided that the people needed something better and he worked with his ministers and gave us something better.”
Minister of Health, the Honourable Akilah Byron-Nisbett, encouraged all residents in the district to take full advantage of the new facility and the services being offered.
“Remembering that primary health care is the first line of defense against any of the NCD’s [non-communicable diseases] that are out there right now like diabetes or hypertension, I am hopeful that persons would benefit from these services that would be offered here at the primary health care facility not just here in Tabernacle but at all of the other health facilities around the island,” Minister Byron-Nisbett said.
Under the previous administration, the Tabernacle Health Centre ran into a state of dilapidation which included a crumbling physical and septic infrastructure. As a result, the health center was relegated to the basement of the nearby day care center.
The new Sylvia Garnette Primary Healthcare Facility was officially commissioned on Thursday, June 25, 2020.
