Cayman Islands calls home its doctors

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
Officials from the Health Services Authority are asking Caymanian students abroad who are training to be doctors to get in touch with the Cayman Islands Hospital to secure a place with the HSA to practice medicine when they return. Making the connection with soon-to-be Caymanian doctors as early as possible is very important to the authority, according to HSA CEO Lizzette Yearwood.
The hospital is closely involved in the development of local trainee doctors and has a robust internship programme for students’ university breaks, giving them valuable early experience with an eye to recruiting them when they qualify.
“The Cayman Islands Health Services Authority is committed to recruiting as many Caymanian doctors and medical staff as possible,” Yearwood said. “Our student internship programme is an extremely useful way for us to develop a relationship with students which will hopefully last all the way through their studies and eventually result in them wishing to come back to the Cayman Islands and to work with us at the HSA. We want all Caymanian students to feel a part of the HSA and we welcome them all.”
Dr Delroy Jefferson, the hospital’s Medical Director, said that any medical student planning a career in medicine when they return home to the Cayman Islands should contact the HSA as soon as they can.
“We are keen to get to know all students who are currently in school, wherever they are studying around the world, and we would like to know when they are planning to return back to Cayman for their professional career,” he said. “This will allow us to anticipate and plan for the students’ return. If we can plan to expect a new doctor to return during a certain time, we can also plan and possibly help create more job opportunities for those newly qualified doctors and medical professionals.”
Jefferson explained that the more the hospital knows about the country’s future doctors, the easier it should be for health authority to make provision for them when they come back if they want to work at the government hospital.
“One of the benefits when making contact with the office of the medical director is that this facilitates dialogue; the returning physician could gain insightful information as to the clinical fields with the most pressing needs,” Dr Jefferson added