By Caribbean Medical News Staff
Minister responsible for Health the Honourable Marcella Liburd has indicated her excitement with recent advancements and those to take place at the Joseph N. France (JNF) General Hospital. She made her comments while on tour in the islands’ Out and About with the Prime Minister, when St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Denzil Douglas visited the Pogson Medical Centre in Sandy Point and the JNF Hospital in discussions with administrators and staff at JNF.
Liburd accompanied the Prime Minister at JNF and indicated that upgrades would be part of Phase Three of the Hospital Improvement Project. Upgrades include the renovation of the back and northern sections of the hospital as well as upgrades and improvements in pathology, the construction of a new mortuary, internet connections in patient rooms as well as improvements in the kitchen, central supply stores and in the cafeteria.
“With all the new equipment and everything, if we are not training and upgrading our human capacity, we won’t be going anywhere, so I want to assure the public that this has also been done. We have been doing continuous training of our Doctors and Nurses and other support staff to keep up to date with current realities,” said Liburd.
Minister Liburd was elated that St. Kitts and Nevis was deemed to be ahead with respect to reaching the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals in the healthcare sector.
“Three of the eight Millennium Development Goals are health-related. They refer to child mortality, maternal death and HIV, I want to inform the public that on all three counts we are more than meeting the standards for the Millennium Development Goals. We have surpassed them actually, in terms of our performance. Child mortality is extremely low. Maternal deaths are almost non-existent – I think we had something like two over a five-year period. And in terms of HIV, that has kind of levelled off and all persons living with HIV and AIDS have access to the needed services,” said Liburd.
