New management structure to form part of New National Hospital

The Prime Minister and members of the cabinet visited the site on Monday

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Roosevelt Skerrit has stated that with the new national hospital, now under construction, a new management structure is one of the components that holds much significance.

Speaking at a visit to the construction site of the hospital on Monday afternoon, Skerrit said that a board would be needed to manage the day to day running of the facility.

“Not only with the view of transferring the hospital budget under the management of that board to minimize on the processes involved in the procurement of goods and services for the hospital, but also to assist in addressing concerns which the public and health professionals may have,” he said, and “seek to address those in a timely fashion.”

The structure change will also be governed by a new legal framework where legislation and health-care is concerned, he said.

“Some of the legislation which we have governing health-care in Dominica are outdated. They have not changed as the time has passed by and there has been remarkable improvement in health-care management,” Skerrit stated.

Other issues on the list for discussion relative to the new national hospital is primary health-care, which will, according to Skerrit, “minimize the number of people who would have to come to the national hospital for medical services.”

Skerrit also described the contribution of the modern hospital as “significant” to the Dominican economy.

The hospital is funded the Peoples Republic of China.

The $40-million facility will include 16,500 square meters of new construction, 4,160 square meters of general repairs to existing buildings which will not be demolished, 400 meters of roof guttering, and a total number of 372 beds, as opposed to the current 230 beds.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

19 Comments

  1. Maria
    August 7, 2017

    Ok so I’m an outsider looking in at this beautiful county where my parents were born. So whats in It for the Chinese ????.
    I hope Dominica hasn’t sold her soul???

  2. Amanda
    February 1, 2017

    That’s great. However training is needed in customer relationship and professI on a list.

  3. Cyril Volney
    January 25, 2017

    Brilliant idea (a board).

    • Marcus Hill
      January 25, 2017

      Just because you want to be on the Board?

  4. freegid tree
    January 24, 2017

    Election campaign takes many forms. Put the millions in an escrow account until such time; Then BAM! Roads are built, horse pee talls are built, doctors coming down from China, ambassador here from India, getting rid of pit latrines, giving money for Carnival organizers and leaving Linton covered in de dust. Nice job mister duck-tor Scare de L outta me. :twisted:

  5. Marcus Hill
    January 24, 2017

    $281,691.14

    Who can read this article and work out what the above figure is?

  6. D/can to de bone(F)
    January 24, 2017

    Pm do not forget to include an air ambulance as part of the deal .Even if iit meant we have to fund it through the CBI program.

    Remember Erika all road was impassable. This IS A TREND that happens now when we have heavy rain . ACCESS IS ONLY BY AIR .

  7. Real!!!!!
    January 24, 2017

    But is this not the same PM that attack Doc IP in parliament for suggesting construction of a hospital building without any plans in the development to address the health-care management of the hospital does not make it a hospital.

    Planning and vision are just not a part of this administration.

  8. Who say me done
    January 24, 2017

    A physical structure is just one aspect of healthcare. There has to be well trained providers to give the best are to patients. In addition, preventive medicine is also the key by addressing diabetes and high blood pressure etc. Over the past ten years the scam has been to build things that cant susatin themselves. There should be discussion about ED access and wait time, access to surgery, rehab facilties etc. A major part should be the addition of a helicopter for medevac purposes. This project will fail despite a beautiful building if all these things are not in place. To have the hospital staffed with chinese doctors will also create a major peiople becuase of language barrier and cultural issues. This is being done ass backwards

  9. Finn
    January 24, 2017
  10. Justice
    January 24, 2017

    In the modern world all hospitals are managed by a board. I’m not a skerrit boom boom fly but that’s the right way to go.

  11. Yesjayson
    January 24, 2017

    Looking forward to the improved customer service and the greatly reduced waiting times in this revised medical system.

    Some might say that all over the world, including the so-called ‘great’ USA have long hospital waiting times. But what I have to say to them is that this IS NOT america or any other place in the world. This is Dominica where we strive for EXCELLENCE in all that we undertake. With a small tweaking of our national mindset Dominica will become the trend setter it was destined to be, and where countries like the United States and Canada will try to pattern on us!

    • Dominican
      January 24, 2017

      We were trendsetters in primary care under P.M. Ms. Charles but we slipped. A pursuit of excellence should be a never-ending exercise, not just a one-off exercise. I’m sure we can do it again and get back some sense of pride.

  12. playboy
    January 24, 2017

    There used to be a hospital board before. What happened to it?
    I guess most may not remember.

  13. Dominik Dou
    January 24, 2017

    How on Earth that a Board will be running the day to day activities of a National Hospital. What will be happened to the different manager/ Supervisors . This is a dictatorship move. Departmental nurses , head of pharmacy, head of lab look out and all other managers with skills to manage the hospital will a go to waste and most of them will leave and to go to greener pasture and our brain drain will continue.

    The Government need to stop micromanaging. The moral of many staff including senior officers in various government are low. They sit and do nothing most of the day because the prime minister and his imps tries do all the work to gain cheap political points.

    Leve` Dominique nous ka dommie toup :-x :-x :-x :-x :-x

    • lightbulb
      January 24, 2017

      it cannot be both ways.
      the government cannot be held accountable for long wait times in the casualty center, and then be criticized when trying to do something about it.

      • Who say me done
        January 24, 2017

        Building a new hospital does not solve the wait time – a large facility with same staff will make the matter worse. Domincans as a whole has really lost all common sense.

    • D/can to de bone(F)
      January 24, 2017

      silly reply . In UK it is done

    • Dominica 31
      February 15, 2017

      All you have to do if google eludes you is watch Chicago Med and you will see the reason why a board is necessary

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available