BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, March 15, 2023 (SKNIS) – Prime Minister and Minister of Health, the Honourable Dr. Terrance Drew highlighted several measures taken by his 7-month-old administration that have already led to significant improvements in the delivery of healthcare services in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Among the measures, Prime Minister Dr. Drew highlighted were training programmes for healthcare employees, the acquisition of key equipment and technology devices for the treatment of patients and the addition of personnel at the Joseph N. France General Hospital to improve overall operations.
“When it comes to the Emergency Room, we have increased the number of doctors there. Not only have we increased the number of doctors but we [are] putting in place a system where you can meet a nurse as soon as you go into the Emergency Room to cut down the wait time, and that again we are implementing and that had never been done in that type of systematic way where you actually have a triage nurse whose job it is just to do triage which is a critical part of treating our patients at the JNF Hospital,” said Prime Minister Dr. Drew.
With respect to nurses, plans are at an advanced stage to provide transportation for nurses who finish working at late hours.
Moreover, Prime Minister Dr. Drew, a medical doctor by training, said that the Ministry of Health is also seeking to employ the services of different specialist doctors here in St. Kitts and Nevis.
“We are having more specialists coming in. We are expecting a visiting surgeon who would help us to step up with our surgical department. We are expecting a neurologist, that’s a brain doctor who deals with headaches, strokes, and so forth; because of the high cases we have here, we need a specialist in that. We’re also having two more internal medicine doctors to deal with other types of things, so we are properly and better covered,” said Dr. Drew.
Another specialist the Government is targeting for the better care of patients is a pulmonologist who specializes in lung conditions.
The Health Minister said attention is also being paid to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in the country, noting that an orientation was held for Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) “and we are now gearing up to have full-fledged training of the EMTs so that their certification here can be applied to anywhere else across the region because these would be recognized certifications.”
Prime Minister Dr. Drew noted further that the Government is actively ensuring that the various units at the medical institutions are properly equipped with basic and other necessary lifesaving equipment.
He added, “Presently some services at the eye clinic cannot be done because there was no scanner and the microscope did not work—it was old and it crashed, and therefore, we had to go in and get a scanner and the scanner is here. The second thing we are getting is the microscope and the microscope has already shipped, and it should be here. We are hoping to resume eye surgeries very soon.”
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