Health Minister culminates health district tours in St. Joseph

Darroux has been touring health districts across the island
Darroux has been touring health districts across the island

The Hon. Minister for Health, Dr. Kenneth Darroux, made his last of seven visits to health districts across the island last week.

The Minister was accompanied by a team of health officials including the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. David Johnson and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Helen Royer on a tour of the St. Joseph Health District.

Hon. Catherine Daniel, Parliamentary Representative for the Colihaut Constituency which is part of that health district, was also part of that team.

The Health Minister says the tour has given him a firsthand look at the delivery of health services across the island.

“It was important for me as the new [Health] Minister to see and hear form myself what’s going on at the district level. We know that once upon a time, we were the pride and joy of primary health care,” he said. “We still are but our better days might have been past us. I think we still have an opportunity to build on the gains which have been made especially from the 80s and 90s… We have to make the necessary adjustments so that optimal care can be received by all and sundry.”

Darroux commended the staff of the St. Joseph health district for delivering optimum service despite varying challenges.

However, he says his Ministry, moving forward, will address these concerns, beginning with infrastructural improvement.

Darroux explained, “A number of facilities around the country built in the 70s and 80s may be experiencing some infrastructural issues right now [although] we still have a number of good facilities standing. We need to see how we can address these challenges in a systematic way.”

Another priority area for the Ministry of Health is training. Darroux says the Ministry of Health is currently assessing the health sector to determine areas lacking specialized staff so training can be designed to meet those needs.

Catherine Daniel who is Minister for Social Services, made a correlation between health and social services, noting that all departments must work together to realize success in the health sector.

“If the health sector is functioning properly, then this money can be expended somewhere else so this marriage between Health and Social Services is very vital to the survival of our country. Partnership is very important, we cannot work in isolation,” Daniel stated.

The Colihaut MP says on the cards for her Constituency is a new health centre.

Also on this tour, the Minister and his team of officials from the Ministry of Health met with individual members of the health teams. The visit culminated with a staff meeting at the St. Joseph Health Center.

The Hon. Minister for Health has already visited the six other districts: Grandbay, Roseau, Laplaine, Marigot, Castle Bruce and Portsmouth.

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10 Comments

  1. Open Mind
    February 8, 2015

    Shame on u minister and your illegal government, to have the gutts to say the health system in the island was doing well in the 80s and 90s.Your illegal government has been there holding on to power for 15 years and have neglected every aspect of institutions on the island.This is evidence of a group holding on to power by any means, but can’t govern.We shall deal with u all and find a way to rid u all off our backs.

  2. February 7, 2015

    Please address the women postures they are to large.Let us encourage each other to lose weight that extra weight is ugly we have jelly bellies, teytey on belly and bomboom larger than life. Let us start walking

  3. concerned
    February 7, 2015

    1) An upscale hospital for Portsmouth.
    2)Nurses and health care workers should stop wearing their uniform in the streets. all germs picked up on road are transmitted into work place and those at work transmitted to the public ex: when they catch a bus to go home.
    3) Eack worker should have a locker on job.
    Those are the minor things to start implementing.

    • Francisco Telemaque
      February 9, 2015

      The word should not be upscale okay, it should be a modern properly reequip hospital with modern medical instruments, such as MRI, Cat Scans, EKG, Machines; modern day Doppler Flow machines, with a well organized Trauma, and Intensive care unit, and a cardiac unite in addition to an emergency section. Modern dialysis machines too.

      Along with that there should be specialist: trained who’s main practice should concentrate on their speciality, of disease, not all general practitioner can treat a brain tumor, not many doctors in Dominica knows how to deal with an aneurysm in the brain. Almost half our population suffers from diabetes, yet we do not have a single endocrinologist to treat the chronically ill diabetic. They claim that there people in Dominica who call themselves cardiologist, I now someone who visits such quack all he tells the man is “your heart is the same size as your last visited.” The reception room, and emergency room must be air conditioned, thus the room is…

  4. Love All
    February 6, 2015

    I remember a primary care nurse name Vilma George later became Bruney was the one who headed the pilot project at Laplaine. That was 1981. She was later moved to the Marigot and her leadership cause the marigot to be the leading district on island. I would advise that the health ministry use her expertise whenever possible.

  5. Nancy
    February 6, 2015

    Where else do you want to visit Mr. Minister and who else do you want to talk to in small Dominica? This is a joke- Also Drigo wants to tour the island speaking to farmers- who is he the Agricultural Minister or the Minster responsible for two pellets of fig?

    This is a complete joke .

  6. Francisco Telemaque
    February 6, 2015

    “We know that once upon a time, “(Darroux).

    Now here is someone who claims to have a medical degree talking crap about “once upon a time.” The first day I entered kindergarten, in my village of Wesley, I was taught whenever we are reading a story, and the words “once upon a time” is written in the story, that is an indication that the story is all fables, not true, it is fiction! If that theory still holds, the conclusion is that either that man is simi-illiterate or perhaps all of his comments here are simply erroneous, and loaded with fallacies!

    I cannot remember reading in any text book I used in college, or university, where the words “once upon a time was found.” And I am sure since I was a health science major, I may have read some of the same medical text books, or similar to what Darroux read, and I am sure he never saw “once upon a time in any of them.

  7. anonymous2
    February 6, 2015

    Now that you have toured the facilities and are aware of the problems, I hope that you can construct a plan to fix the situations and implement it in a timely manner.

  8. Oh Yes
    February 6, 2015

    This is a practical approach to addressing issues. A proactive management style brings rewards. Let’s hope that there is follow-up strategies in place as well.

  9. grell
    February 6, 2015

    Darroux just a visit for show.

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