The new Dominica China Friendship Hospital (DCFH) is to be governed by medical accountability, answerability, and active reporting among other ethical codes to be set forth by the National Health Commission (NHC). Commission member and former president of Dominica, Eliud Williams, said relevant legislation is currently being drafted to create a new governance system that will determine how medical and nursing practice is run in the country.
He said the Hospital Authorities Act will govern healthcare delivery in hospitals across the country, starting from the DCFH at a nearby date. According to him, healthcare services in Dominica had always lacked a personal touch with medical personnel doing little to demonstrate accountability and accurate reporting. He said this is going to change with the new governance system that will soon be operative following the passing of the Hospital Authorities Act legislation.
Williams said with the legislation, the health minister will be kept abreast of most medical situations at the DCFH since the National Health Commission will be on top of all medical situations in government hospitals. With such updated information, the health minister or any other federal minister will be able to give accounts to lawmakers, the former president said.
“A nurse who should have rails on the bed of a stroke patient,” he stated, “failing to put that rail and the patient falls; in the new dispensation, there will have to be a report why it wasn’t done. There will be a form, if a technician or a doctor has to respond to a call, that call must be documented. The time the call is made, when the doctor, nurse or the lab tech responded, what action was taken, how it was taken, and the time frame.”
It is not only doctors or nurses that will give accounts of everything they do in the country, even lab and x-ray technicians among other hospital staff will also do. Meanwhile, Williams said the DCFH management will hold an annual meeting with the general public to always evaluate the hospital’s services and chart a way forward.
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