Residents in the south of the island will now have better options for diagnostic tests following the donation of equipment to enhance health services at the St. Jude Hospital.
A donation of two significant medical equipment from the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs was made to the hospital. These pieces of equipment is expected to strengthen the delivery of diagnostic tests in the hospital’s laboratory.
The two pieces of equipment are a hematology analyzer and an immunoassay analyzer.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Jenny Daniel says this donation signifies the continuation of the ministry’s goal towards strengthening the delivery of health services in Saint Lucia.
“We are acutely aware at the Ministry of Health of the extreme significance of St. Jude Hospital as a national hospital within the south of the island and the need to ensure that the service provision is in tune with the health service delivery expectations at the hospital. So, at the Ministry of Health although we are a sister agency with oversight over the delivery of healthcare and not necessarily directly involved with the healthcare in St. Jude Hospital, we recognize the need for us to contribute and to strengthen that sector in order to relieve pressures otherwise on our other areas within our institutions within the health sector,” Daniel said.
Minister for Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs Hon. Moses Jn. Baptiste says the ministry will continue working with the St. Jude Hospital to ensure that health services provided to patients are improved.
“The hematology analyzer and the immunoassay analyzer, I am sure will cause our people to feel more confident in the healthcare service which will be provided to them. They know that we have challenges at the St. Jude Hospital but when they feel that every week, that every month that we are trying our very best to improve the circumstances, I know that the confidence will continue to grow in our system, our doctors and in our workers in general,” Jn Baptiste said.
Medical Director of the St. Jude Hospital Dr. Sybil Naitram-James expressed immense gratitude to the Ministry of Health for the equipment and says this will assist them with meeting the required standards for accreditation on an international level.
“For quite some time, we have been working with frequent down time on our current hematology machines leaving us unable to offer critical emergency labs to our clients. This machine will be doing our basic complete blood count with a 5-part differential. The second machine is actually the most exciting one, the immunoassay analyzer, which we call the clia maglumi 800. It will permit us to upgrade some of the tests that we are currently offering but it also has the additional feature of being able to offer a number of other tests that we were unable to process locally,” James said.
The new medical equipment will allow the St. Jude Hospital to test for cancer markers and hormonal testing here in Saint Lucia.
The equipment donated to the St. Jude Hospital is valued at EC $135, 000 dollars.
I thought that the Government of St. Lucia had started the construction of a modern hospital, to replace the old St. Jude, built by the Americans during the second world war, more or less like a Mini-Hospital to accommodate wounded service men; I understood that millions of Dollars was estimated, plans drawn up, contracts submitted, work activated, completion work was within just a couple more months, then general Elections changed every thing. the Work on the new Hospital for what ever reason was stopped, but money is being spent on the old Stadium as replacement. My question is, why is it so, and for what reason? St. Lucia with its love affair with ‘Party Politics’ in my opinion will be stuck in the same dark ages as in Colonial times, because we have just elected a new cabinet of persons still nursing deep seated grudges against their local political rivals, and in the interim The people in the South are robbed of a good and proper opportunity in health care.