The original article can be found in: The Barbados Advocate By Patricia Thangaraj
A FACILITY catering to the needs of persons suffering from coronary artery disease would be open to the public by the end of 2013.
This was revealed by Minister of Health, John Boyce, who delivered the feature address at yesterday’s dedication and official naming of the headquarters building – the Hassell & Symmonds Cardiac Care Centre – in honour of the founding fathers of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB) Inc.
“A similar type of decision has already been taken with respect to coronary artery disease and the cardiac suite, whose services will include critical care post-acute heart attack, thrombolysis, cardiac catherization and angiographic interventions. This facility will be open to the public by the end of this year.”
He said that this cardiac suite will also have the capability to cater to persons from the English-speaking Caribbean, which would be a valuable source of revenue for Barbados.
Another initiative that the Ministry has developed in this regard is the stroke unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), which “is a good example of evidence-based decision making which has resulted in the practical implementation of health care policies”, stated Boyce.
This stroke unit, which was constructed to address the high incidences of stroke victims in Barbados, would accordingly provide much needed care to these patients, stated Boyce.
“The registry showed that there were 456 and 480 cases of stroke in 2009 and 2010 respectively. That is approximately three strokes every two days. These statistics resulted in a policy decision for the creation of a 16-bed stroke unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital that will provide urgent and critical interventions for stroke patients and will translate into better outcomes.
However, these facilities would not be of much use unless there are qualified staff in the healthcare sector that know how to address the needs of their patients. Therefore, the Ministry would continue to offer educational and training opportunities for these staff members to constantly update their skills and knowledge, stated the Minister of Health.
“Improvement of our infrastructure through capital works programmes must be coupled with investment in and improvement of staff competencies. The Ministry will continue to support training of health care professionals in cardiovascular medicine and other specialities through continuing professional education and seminars for nurses and doctors.”
The recently completed fourth series of training on modules diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease, which the Ministry developed with the assistance of the HSFB and the Barbados National Registry, would also help in finding ways to reduce the incidences of these diseases, he added.
