News

The Dominica Hospitals Authority Bill has been passed by Parliament.

This as the Seventh Meeting of First Session of the Tenth Parliament was held on Monday June 28 2021 from 10 a.m.

The Dominica Hospitals Authority Bill is one of five pieces of legislation which is expected to drive the reform and transformation of hospitals and health care services with a strategic focus on strengthening accountability within an accreditation framework.

As part of this review, a National Health Commission was appointed by Cabinet in 2017 to make recommendations on the improvement of the health care services in the Commonwealth of Dominica and to examine the governance structure of the Dominica China Friendship Hospital.

The NHC led the way with the review of existing Bill as well as with the preparation of the Dominica Hospitals Authority Bill.

Minister for Health, Wellness and New Health Investments, Hon. Dr. Irving McIntyre explained that the Dominica Hospitals Authority Bill is expected to create a sense of accountability among the staff of the hospital.

“The new hospital legislation creates a modern efficient approach to hospital care and to the development of health professionals through regular continuing education. The main goal of the reform is to ensure the Dominica populace receives a high quality of care from all public hospitals on the island. This new hospitals authority legislation put in place new reporting arrangements and changes the current arrangement whereby the hospital services coordinator, the hospital medical director and matron report to different administrators at the Ministry of Health. This will institute accountability on the part of medical nursing and other staff,” Dr. McIntyre stated.

The new law provides for the creation of a Board of Directors, with a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) reporting to a nine member board.

The Health Minister explained that “this is an effort to bring decision making regarding patient care, diagnostic services and procurement of equipment and supplies closer to the centre of patient care.”

Dr. McIntyre further noted that the new structure will include new departments such as engineering services, quality management, patient support services, human resources, and finance and budgeting will also serve in enhancing the delivery of the quality of care in a modern 21^st century hospital facility.

“The Board shall appoint Directors and Managers which will be necessary for the Authority to perform its functions and Mr. Speaker this is provided for in Clause 26. These Directors or Mangers shall be fulltime officers of the Authority who shall not engage in any other trade, profession or business without the consent of the Board,” the Minister stated.

Prime Minister of Dominica, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit commended the National Health Commission stating that “I want to specially recognize and express my personal profound thanks and of course that of the Government and the entire country to the members of the commission who spearheaded this process. It speak to their undying commitment and love for country.”

The Prime Minister added that the implementation of the Dominica Hospital Authority Bill is part of the plan to develop and improve health care in the country.

“This Government has taken this responsibility very seriously, and in a practical and pragmatic manner has gone about improving the health care of our country. Not only the infrastructure, which is unprecedented, but also in ensuring that we have the human resources at our disposal. This is part of a master plan and we have systematically gone about improving the health care in our country,” Prime Minister Skerrit added.

Minister for Trade, Commerce, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Business Export Development, Hon. Ian Douglas also added his support to the Dominica Hospitals Authority Bill stating that the Bill will ensure efficiency in the delivery of health care in Dominica.

 “We are putting the system in place for the better management Mr. Speaker, of the Dominica China Friendship Hospital because this hospital is a state of the art hospital. We have heard our citizens so what we are trying to do is just to bring better management and better control and more efficiency and more predictability to the delivery of health care at our top health institution. That is what we are trying to do here,” Hon. Douglas stated.

Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment, Youth at Risk, Gender Affairs, Seniors' Security and Dominicans With Disabilities Hon. Dr. Adis King described the Bill as very timely before going on to dispel rumours suggesting the privatization of the hospital and its services.

“There has been a lot of concern in terms that putting a board in a board in place was to privatize the hospital. I want to assure Dominicans that is not the intention at all. We will continue to be a public hospital. We will continue to take care of our most vulnerable among us, and absolutely nobody will be denied care at the hospital, whether it be the DCFH or our brand new hospital, the North East Hospital in Marigot. Health care for some time has been free for children 18 and under and for the elderly 60 and above and this will remain as it is,” Dr. King noted.