SOME PROBLEM-HIT DEPARTMENTS at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) are in for a revamp.
Minister of Health Donville Inniss made the announcement last night, addressing the constituency conference of the St Michael West Central Member of Parliament, James Paul.
The departments include radiotherapy, physical therapy, radiology and laboratory services.
Inniss told more than 300 people attending the meeting at Ellerslie Secondary School in Black Rock, St Michael, that he had informed the QEH board of directors about his dissatisfaction with the way the departments were operating.
” . . . They have to get a major overhaul as we pull them into the 21st century and get them delivering as they should,” he said.
He pointed out that the staff of these departments generally “labour under very trying circumstances”.
There were also cases of “under-funding and under-management” which had to be addressed as “a matter of priority”, he told the gathering that included Deputy Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and other Cabinet ministers.
Inniss gave a report on strides made by Government to address the many challenges faced by the QEH and other health care institutions.
He said construction work would be starting this financial year on the long-stalled St John Polyclinic.
According to Inniss, Government would start building a three-storey emergency ambulance building later this year.
Inniss also said Government was moving to create a leaner and more effective Barbados Drug Service, without compromising the quality of care.
The service, on which Government spent more than $50 million annually, had become “an unwieldy beast, galloping out of control”, he complained. (TY)
