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Former Health Minister Dr. Kenneth Darroux has been appointed interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Dominica Hospital Authority.<\/p>\n
He replaces\u00a0\u00a0St. Lucian National Nancy Francis, who held that position for the past two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to say thanks to the work of the former CEO, my predecessor, Miss Francis, who is St Lucian by birth.\u00a0 She spent two years here, and I want to thank her for the tremendous work that she did in setting the foundation, setting the authority on a clear course to prosperity,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the minister called to ask whether I could step in as interim CEO, of course, I \u00a0had to give it some serious thought. I would have to get out of my comfort zone, semi-retirement sort of, \u00a0in order to get back, of course, to manage, the challenges that come in managing a national hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Dr. Darroux, he feels honoured and humbled that he was called to serve in that capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think the reason, of course, was given to me that I would have had a panoramic view of the health system, serve as a patient, a medical doctor, intern, minister of health and of course, deputy director of the board, so I would have had a 360 view of the health system and the hospital and what it entails,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, he revealed that he has been very busy meeting staff, trying to hear from them, \u201cstarting with the different categories of staff, starting from the domestic workers, all the way up rather to the surgeons to kind of get a feel of what are the issues and of course to hear from them, [what] they think of some of the solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Darroux said he will soon meet with the Minister of Health to provide him with a comprehensive report on what he has found out and what is needed to get the hospital moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Dr. Darroux said he plans to restore the public trust in the Dominica China Friendship Hospital (DCFH).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard the Prime Minister hinted that over the years we’ve seen sort of a decline in the public trust, some unjustifiably of course, a lot of gossip mongering, but it\u2019s mind-boggling to me now after millions of dollars worth of investment in a new building. I mean, this is a \u00a0thousand percent better than what existed before. I’m showing you what existed before,\u201d he stated. \u201cIn terms of a thousand percent more services, radiology, modern radiology. This is our sixth operating theatre in this hospital. \u201c<\/p>\n
Moreover, according to Dr. Darroux, it is obvious that some strategic moves need to be made in terms of building the public’s trust back in the Dominica China Friendship Hospital. He added that this is one of the reasons he met with the staff and human resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe human resource is perhaps the most important asset of any institution, and in that case, the hospital because of all of the fancy equipment, the fancy x-rays, mammogram, and MRI, \u00a0if the staff who operate these are not motivated, they are not happy, etc…, [then] we get the bad results,\u201d he remarked.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSo of course this is a\u00a0\u00a0challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Darroux added,\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThere are other challenges along the way, but what I think my main focus, as I said, is to build people’s trust back into the hospital because we do have a lot of wonderful things going on. So these are success stories that we think need to be out there. \u201c<\/p>\n
He revealed that the hospital board is in the process of hiring a PR consultant.<\/p>\n
Since December 17, 2019, Dr. Darroux has held the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. His extensive background in the healthcare sector includes serving as Minister of Health and Social Services, as well as acting as Medical Officer for the Grand Bay District.<\/p>\n
His medical education and dedication to community health have significantly influenced his early perspectives and his ongoing dedication to public health initiatives.<\/p>\n
Throughout his political career, Dr. Darroux has played various roles within the government, notably representing the Petite Savanne Constituency in Parliament since 2005.<\/p>\n
His\u2002career\u2002has\u2002been\u2002marked\u2002by\u2002a\u2002commitment\u2002to\u2002improving\u2002health\u2002systems\u2002and\u2002disaster\u2002resilience\u2002in\u2002Dominica.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Health Minister Dr. Kenneth Darroux has been appointed interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Dominica Hospital Authority. He replaces\u00a0\u00a0St. Lucian National Nancy Francis, who held that position for the past two years. \u201cI want to say thanks to…","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":351911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n