New Peebles Hospital opening likely for March 2014 – Health Minister
“We are looking at a date in March [2014] to officially open the [hospital],” Hon. Skelton said on the NDP radio programme on October 7, 2013.
Hon. Skelton told listeners that the hospital is expected to be opened in phases, “there will be a phased opening of the hospital. It’s a facility that we’re seeking help from the various professionals.”
He disclosed that he has spoken with officials from HIMA Hospital Systems in Puerto Rico and the Cleveland Clinic among others. “They are all showing interest depending on what level we want them to be involved in,” the Health Minister said.
Speaking on the issue of accreditation, he added, “We need to bring the standard of the hospital up so that it can be accredited so that people can move from here to whatever major tertiary care hospital they need to go to and the results and information that they walk with would be sufficient for doctors to make decisions.”
Staffing issues
In addressing the question of staffing, Hon. Skelton related, “It’s going to take some time if we just want local professionals working on it, it’s not going to happen overnight. It has to be something that we to focus on and train people to do so.”
The Health Minister also spoke of the difficulty of attracting Cuban trained doctors within the Virgin Islands as is done in other Caribbean countries such as St Lucia and St Vincent. “They have set up systems inside their healthcare system… as a tutelage kind of facility to see what level of training the Cuban doctors that they have attracted [are at] because they are Spanish speaking and deal with a different system.”
“Now we don’t have the capacity here to police medical professionals,” he added, “so what we depend on is for other places [such as] the University of the West Indies… most of the developed countries of the world. Once they have qualifications from there then we accept them here to be registered.”
He said Cuban doctors and those from Santo Domingo have not gone through those level of systems therefore the VI doesn’t possess the capacity to say whether or not these doctors can be used to work on patients locally, “if something goes wrong, we’ll be in trouble.”
The Health Minister disclosed that the hospital is currently being outfitted with beds, CT scan and other machines to enable the hospital to function. He also revealed that the hospital will feature three operating theatres, one of which is set aside for OB/GYN (Obstetrics & Gynaecology) procedures.
Hon. Skelton further stated that his Ministry is planning to partner with several organisations locally and overseas in order to provide the necessary care to residents as required.
Hon. Archibald C. Christian noted that government remains open to donors in relation to the supply of equipment and furnishings that the hospital may require and invited businesses and individuals to step up to the plate in this regard.
“There is no hospital that can cover every single eventuality, so I can’t tell you that we’ll tell you everything, that would be not telling the truth,” the Health Minister added.
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Well this over priced project will soon be over in terms of construction but due to ignorance by this same Minister we will be paying for this expensive mistake for years. Ronnie you have a lot to answer for with this project.
when that date comes we hear another lie and spin from crum**ell
Every £$%^^ year this hospital opening!