Barbadians with cancer who have to travel overseas for radiation treatment should soon be able get it at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).
The piece of equipment to facilitate this, a linear accelerator, was delivered to Government last November and Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Davidson Ishmael said Tuesday that testing and commissioning would likely take place in July.
He was speaking in the House of Assembly on Tuesday during debate on two land resolutions for the establishment of a hospice and palliative care facility and construction of 33 housing units at Coverley, Christ Church.
After the issue was raised by Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw, Ishmael said “the work continues relative to the establishment of the linear accelerator in our country”.
“There is a lot of civil works that have been undertaken to be able to facilitate it. As you could imagine, any entity that has any radiation involved, there would have to be a special purpose-built facility and space for its housing,” he explained.
“So, therefore, some of these civil works have taken inordinately long, but the team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is working assiduously to ensure that we can get to the point where the civil works are completed.
“I have been told that those civil works are due to be finished this week, . . .the linear accelerator is already here, but until the space has been built out in the way that it should and the manner that it should be, we cannot set it in place, and therefore commission it,” he said.
Ishmael added: “The team that we have worked with to help us to get to this point will be coming in during the course of July to help us to be able to establish the linear accelerator.
“I have been told that that process will take about two to three weeks, with them being on the ground, helping us and our technical teams here to be able to not only establish but to start testing and commissioning the linear accelerator during the course of the month of July.” (SC)
Long over due.