The Dominican government has established a National Health Commission to oversee the operations of the Dominica China Friendship Hospital (DCFH). The nine-member board will commence work next year after lawmakers implement the necessary laws to get the commission operational. The chairman of the commission is Dr. Dorian Shillingford.
According to Shillingford, 70% of the budget of the new board will be spent on taking care of DCFH staff and maintaining operational activities at the hospital. He said the commission will be working together with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to chart a way forward for the health sector and sustain hospital management in the country.
“The hospital is the most expensive part of all the health services that we are providing,” Dr. Shillingford said. “We are spending 70% on staff at the hospital in terms of our expenditure. We have also the facilities to function, electricity, water and cleaning. The emphasis has been on the hospital right now but the Commission was really set up to look into the whole question of health together with Pan American health Organization.”
Another member of the National Health Commission, Dr. Donald Peters, said necessary legislation is being put together to determine the affairs of the health board, and that the commission obtained overseas help to set things rolling smoothly. He added that formulating the legislation was a tough task to achieve, and that recommendations were also made for the composition of the new board.
“Legislation is the toughest one,” he said. “We have developed a new governance structure for management of the hospital to Cabinet. The Prime Minister has made some suggestions but largely they have accepted the structure that we have presented to them.”
According to Peters, the team advertised for a CEO and three finalists have emerged out of the initial 19 applicants. He said the team has also met with potential staff and officials of the hospital since these must be constituted ahead of the 2021 takeoff of the hospital system so that they can be instrumental to the decision-making progress of the initiative.
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