Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Helen Royer is reporting that her Ministry has made quote significant progress in the improvement and delivery of health care services.
At a press conference on Wednesday May 6th, Royer detailed the capacity-building successes of the Ministry of Health.
“We were able, throughout the last few years, to send seven medical doctors to get qualified in various specialities. We have had two of them return [so far]. We have had an internist return and has been providing significant assistance to the medical wards an dialysis unit. Just at the end of April, one of the doctors who went to study infection epidemiology returned and we are expecting to benefit from her services.
“We have the oncologist, internists and an orthopaedic surgeon on training. For the past four or five years, we have had a shortage of Community Health Nurses but we have also been able to send four… nurses to be trained and two have already returned. We have also sent three Family Nurse Practitioners and two of them are back on island. This is an achievement for us.”
In addition to more trained staff, the Ministry of Health is also paying attention to the policies that guide the delivery of health care.
She added, “We realise that critical to ensuring that we give quality care is to have a framework to provide this care. As such, we have placed great emphasis on the development of policies. We now have draft policies in Pharmaceutical Care, Dental Health, Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases and HIV.
“We just recently launched our Infection Control Manual and we just had our National Nutrition Policy for Dominica approved. We have completed the Nutrition and School Health Policy so we’re waiting to pass it on to Cabinet for approval.”
The D-MEDIS programme which was piloted at the Grandbay Health Centre and the PMH Accident and Emergency department in July last year is also being counted as an achievement.
“In the next few months, we intend to pilot it in other areas like the lab and other health centres. [Medical professionals will be able to access patient information almost immediately. If the patient was seen at PMH, we could get your records from the district and vice versa.”
On top of all of this, new equipment is making for a better patient experience at the PMH.
The new mammogram, CT scan, gastroscopy and laparoscopy machines have been installed and are working well.
The Permanent Secretary added that a new MOU signed with the Government of Turkey will mean new equipment for the Portsmouth Hospital.
I am disturbed over the attacks hurled at Mrs Royer. First let me say that Mrs Royer is a qualified health professional who came from the bowels of the primary health care system which is a pillar of the public health system. Added to her clinical skills, she has distinguished herself in health administration. A very self willed and ambitious woman. Mrs Royer through her own efforts prepared herself for this present task. She understands the issues confronting health and is one of the most formidable personnel to head the department.. Mrs Royer is a committed public servant and remains undaunted to the many challenges in the health system. She serves with conscience and conviction. I applaud her resilience.
No one is attaching the personality or qualification of the lady and it’s time that Dominicans try to separate their own comments before they post, the issue is she is working with an unpopular Government and PM so everything coming from the ministers will be questioned because most of it do not involved the people at large , so I would suggest that you focus on the issue and problems at hand, and not she can do the job. Our health system is the pit , so ask yourself why are they building all these little houses and call it a hospital, one goes into emergency and to be told that they have to go to other side because they a in the wrong section those are the type of things you want her to explain if her Boss will allow her to respond, she have to be up front with her constituency and all Dominicans
Is this the calibre of the Permanent Secretary in Health.No wonder health services are deteriorating despite all this show. She sounds like she trying ti convince her political bosses that something is happening under her watch.When in fact very little is happening.Where is the value for the money spent?
What do you know? I read the article and I am impressed and pleased. Why read into it negatively? Is this your reason for the sake of commenting? It appears to be a trait that some of you are always assuming and criticizing. Your perception of what is may not be that. You are imagining what is non-existent. What is wrong with your brains?
I DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT WAS SAID!
Pure Lies!!!!!! Lies i sayyyyyy……Helen Royer u need to will and come again.
In order for me personally to believe you, you need to disclose what sort of specialist training you have given to you doctors, who are yet unable to prevent the high volume of dead people leaving the PMH after receiving treatment.
How many brain Sergeant, endocrinologists, cardiac, kidney, orthopedic and cancer specialists have you trained? You running off your mouth, but be informed to become a specialist that is something doctors pursuit during their eight years in medical school. The may all receive the same general medical training, however, to become a Specialist in a certain field takes more than simple medical training! You have specialist who allowed my niece to die from internal bleeding caused by a head injury. You need to shut you damn mouth!
The progress is good, but where is the empirical evidence that those efforts and new equipment have yielded better delivery? The death rates at PMH are still scary and have not decreased.
All countries have death rates even though patients receive excellent health care from the medical profession. i suppose when your time is up, it is up. Furthermore, we must take charge/care of our health. We are constantly advised and warned about that.
I heard through the Media of a 24 year-old woman who had a baby approximately seven months ago died suddenly. She worked in a radio station. So is her mother in another city. They are known to those who hear them on the radio which is why her death is broadcasted. I have heard her mother on air. I was sorry to hear of her daughter’s death. So far, the cause of death has not been revealed. The young and the old die.
Majority of the nurses and doctors are the worst in Dominica. No amount of training can fix there attitudes and level of professionalism. They treat people like less of a human being. Do a survey on the amount of mothers and babies that are dying in that hospital and then sing a different song Helen Royer ……..
Helen Royer is the voice of Skerrit and therefore it does not surprise me she reporting progress in health when all of Dominica knows heath care is at its worse. So continue singing for your supper Ms. Royer
And anything she says, as the PM, you criticize and denounce. This is how unfair some of you are. It means they are not always wrong but for your unfair criticism.
You must cease this. Pray to God to assist you with a change of heart. You cannot enter Heaven with that type of attitude. It is ungodly. It is also disagreeable and what which do not promote happiness, peace and encouragement. If you do not possess it, you cannot generate it to others.
This is a very good start. Now instead of having one of these medical professionals trained in those specialities, I suggest you more trained, thereby having at least 2 of each of those specialists on island.
You need to build some redundancies into the system. We need to prepare for the worse – such as the doctor not being able to practice due to an emergency, illness, departure from the service etc.
Stop blowing smoke up people’s – stop with the lies – DA healthcare is the worse its ever been – Talk about the young doctors that left and went to other Caribbean islands to practice because of their frustration with the govt meddling in the hospital affairs. You can get all the new equipment down here it will be useless without professionals who knows how to use them. The condition of the clinics and hospitals are deplorable and sad. So lie to yourself and not intelligent people like me who have seen the state of things in DA healthcare. Everything you have listed is a crap. Help the great doctors like Dr St Luce – do his job , help recruit and retain – STOP WITH YOUR LIES …Intelligent people take a tour of the hospital, take a tour of the clinics – you would be frightful of what you see. You need to stop with the Turkey, Martinque crap etc and engage good DA doctors that genuinely want to come back and help. I have more to say…..but willl hold my tongue for now