Financial challenges plague Dominica Infirmary

St. Luce has highlighted some of the challenges facing the Dominica Infirmary. File photo
St. Luce has highlighted some of the challenges facing the Dominica Infirmary. File photo

Director of the Dominica Infirmary, Annie St Luce has highlighted a number of challenges facing the institution, with the main one the need for financial assistance.

She was addressing the beginning of Residents Awareness Week (RAW) held at the Dominica Infirmary grounds on Monday.

“Our greatest challenge is financial,” she revealed. “That is the greatest challenge that we have at the Dominica Infirmary. As you may well understand that the infirmary provides residential care for destitute elderly people on the island of Dominica, who for one reason or the other they may not be able to be cared for at home, or they do not own a home, or they do not have children to take care of them.”

St Luce pointed out that most of the time the residents of the infirmary cannot provide any kind of financial assistance towards their own care.

“So they are here and we are to care for them and provide their every need but there is no financial support from their relatives or even from them,” she explained. “They may not even receive a pension and we are to take care of them.”

She said that it costs the infirmary, on average, EC$3,500 monthly to care for each resident.

“We care for sometimes up to 96, so if we were to do our math we will realize that it cost us quite a bundle to take care of the residents here at the infirmary,” she stated.

She said it is a constant financial challenge to provide care for the residents.

“We are to provide their meals, they receive constant medical attention and a number of them their lives are extended because of that,” St Luce explained. “If they were probably in their own environment they would have probably died a long time ago, but because they receive round the clock care, the nurses are on staff, Doctors are called when they are needed, they are on maintenance medication, they receive their meals on time, their lives are extended.”

Another challenge being faced by the institution is the “aging building” which is in need of repairs.

“This building was built sometimes in the 1980’s, so of course by now we have a number of structural needs,” St. Luce said. “We have a number of repairs that needs to be done in various parts of the building: plumbing, repainting, walls that need to be strengthened, some of our equipment that needs to be upgraded and of course there is a financial cost for that. Also the rising cost of employment, our staff of are dedicated and most times we want to ensure that if your staff is dedicated that they can get a pay that is equivalent to what they give.”

And as that is not enough, the institution is facing the challenge of getting family members involved in the lives of their relatives who often forget they are living there.

“My appeal to family members is that whenever you place a relative at the Dominica Infirmary, it is not a forgetting ground,” she stressed. “That’s what happens most times, residents are placed here and we may see relatives for the first month or two and then they no longer come in.”

She explained that the situation causes some residents to become depressed.

“We had to bring in some of the MSc students who do counselling at UWI to work with our residents and even the nursing staff sometimes will say that this person is depressed, and when you speak with them what they reveal is that they miss their families and their families don’t visit,” St Luce remarked. “Some may own property and they know that they own property, they know that they are supposed to have some money in the bank and nothing is being paid to the infirmary for their care and they are aware of it…that offends them as well.”

St Luce also appealed to the citizens of Dominica to play their part in caring for the elderly.

“Normally we say we are the Nature Island, we are loving, we welcome people and we show them love from outside, but I also want us to extend that love that we extend to strangers to our people in Dominica, especially those that are in need and in our case at the Dominica Infirmary,” she stated.

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13 Comments

  1. wesley girl
    December 11, 2016

    If the elderly people have family and have property the government should sell their property to take care of them

  2. Anony
    December 7, 2016

    $3500 cost to care for each resident? Some local private nursing homes cost less. That tells us how much the gov’t can save by sending some of that business to local nursing homes. Whose managing this place? Wow

  3. viewsexpressed
    December 7, 2016

    What happen? The inept Skerrit no longer, for the sake of buying votes ad gaining popularity has not passed by the infirmary for sometime and just hand out any amount of cash he feels he can sel for vote and regain his stained autocratic corrupt reputation??
    We civil servants have advised that that kind of handouts willingly and indiscriminately does not lend itself to development. It is fraudulent, disrespectful, The government is insensitive to the poor and vulnerable people, and elderly. On the other hand, The infirmary is therefore has made to be dependent, not on the government but on one man Skerrit who abuses his position and rally around the vulnerable, NGO organisations, families and the poor.
    This is well demonstrated by the absence of the Minister for Local g0vernm,ent, welfare and the vulnerable people. This ministry has not got the sufficient resources at its head & initiative and gull to campaign for those who come under her ministry. The head is…

  4. December 6, 2016

    When Skerrit and his gang make ”shat dansee” in Dubai with Dominica’s tax payers money, you people remained silence, now all want money for everything

    • Jumbie Dog
      December 6, 2016

      You are such an idiot it’s not funny. I guess you will never grow old. I am so sick of you people and your never ending negative statements on this medium.
      Ms. St.Luce thanks for bringing this situation to or attention,

      • December 7, 2016

        Maybe if you wasn’t such an idiot, you would call on Skerrit, when go spending the country’s scarce resources to buy popularity instead of spending it where it needed, the 200k he spend in Dubai, wouldn’t it go further if it was spend helping the alderly? or you just sitting on your brain

  5. Dominique
    December 6, 2016

    The infirmary is an institution that gives quality care to the informed i can attest to that. This is a worthy cause to donate to I appeal to all Dominicans, i know things are very hard, but the little we give goes a long way. It is a shame on the government for having so much money wasting sending people to Dubai and all over the place whilst our elderly citizens are abandoned. A DAM SHAME, but God doesn’t sleep.

  6. Dominica I love
    December 6, 2016

    Very good suggestions made here so far.
    I have to commend the staff and management of the infirmary of the excellent care they provide for our elders. I visited there recently and was amazed at how clean the people and their surroundings are kept.
    I totally agree with the idea of hiring someone to take care of solicitation of funds and sponsorship to help with the finances.

  7. Ruby
    December 6, 2016

    Maybe we can launch an ‘Adopt an Elder’ campaign for the Infirmary. The Infirmary can make a list of the economical needs of the residents and offer them up for adoption, that way they will at least have someone directly caring for some of their needs, to allow for whatever available finance to be used for administrative purposes.

  8. john doe
    December 6, 2016

    Also St. Luce you need some of the passport money to sort out the issues. Too much passport money is in the wrong hands in Dca. It is Dca money and people…… holding it hostage!

  9. Shaka Zulu
    December 6, 2016

    Country economy tight donations get tighter. Here are a couple suggestions. Get someone hired who has one responsibility only. To solicit donations. There are lots of Dominican civic groups in the Diaspora looking for a cause to donate to. Secondly we should get a piece of land to plant fruits vegetables and other foods. Let prisoners in state prison work on it and donate food to infirmary. Let them make use of the valuable time they spending on restricted R And R from Tax payers account.

  10. December 6, 2016

    Where is the protector of the needy downtrodden and poor; the knight with the monitory sword, who quickly rushes to the rescue of his Cronies and friends while he is entrusted with the public purse. The residence of the Dominica Infirmary are the persons most needing of the benevolence of Tax payers monies; they too are our brothers and sisters.

  11. Trevor Fabien
    December 6, 2016

    Its really nice to see my former classmate contributing to society so positively. Well done Annie.

    Here is what i would propose as the governement if the infirmy is indeed funded by the government. I would enact a law which allows the government to convert any of the elderly’s asssets into cash which would go towards the welfare of the said elderly. How can one expect to dump their mum, dad, grandma or grandpa in the infirmry and have the state look after that said family memeber whilst they enjoy the assets of the elderly which is left behind and forgotten whilst the infirmry is struggling to give the basic care to these people who really need it.

    This is a debate which is currently ongoing in the House of Commons. I support the idea. There is a link to the story below for those who are interested. I must aslso add that the problem in Dominica is slightly different because of our culture

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/06/care-cost-elderly-home

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