Health will continue to be of great importance for the Roosevelt Skerrit-led administration in the year 2013. Plans are to build a new Princess Margaret Hospital outfitted with modern facilities.
This was emphasized by Prime Minister Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit during an end of year interview.
He says, “We cannot get to the optimum and to the apex with the present state of the facilities at the PMH. Clearly, in the second decade of the 21st century, that structure cannot [continue] to be our premiere place to provide secondary and tertiary medical care. Despite the best efforts of doctors and nurses, we need to have a modern facility to complement the modern equipment that we have. Doctors and nurses are being trained to provide the kind of care that our citizens require. Come 2013, God willing, that hospital shall commence and it will address once and for all the structural and infrastructural challenges that we face at the PMH.”
The Prime Minister says the issue of doctors becoming specialized is important if Dominica is to make maximum use of the new PMH soon to be constructed.
The Prime Minister stated further that his Government is well-poised to provide opportunities for local doctors to become specialized.
“We have sent doctors to specialize in various fields: there’s one doctor currently in Jamaica and a few others in Cuba. We encourage them to do that. The process for specialization scholarships involves sitting an exam which Is why it is important for doctors to read continuously and keep themselves in tune with new developments. Once the doctor has passed the exams, he/she can then apply for assistance from Government to specialize at a hospital of his/her choice.”
Hon Skerrit told doctors to aim for more knowledge when he stated that doctors “should not satisfy themselves with the knowledge that they have a medical degree. It’s a learning process. Times are changing and there are new methods of administering medical care to patients. One has to take himself to the next level but he/she has to make the first step and once that is done, Government can assist.”