No More Travelling Abroad For Medical Treatment with New Dominica-China Hospital
No more traveling abroad for medical treatment with the new Dominica-China Hospital, PM Skerrit said. The prime minister said this at the ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch the inauguration of the Dominica-China Friendship Hospital. Hundreds of government officials, opposition members, dignitaries and members of the general public were present to witness the unveiling ceremony.
Skerrit said wealthy Dominicans will no longer need to access medical care outside of the country, and those who are too poor to travel abroad for medical treatment will enjoy comprehensive medical attention and treatment at the new hospital. He added that people from other countries within the Caribbean community will also be able to access quality and affordable healthcare services at the hospital as well and this will boost medical tourism for the country.
“There are many citizens in this country who do not have the means of accessing medical care overseas and with this facility, you will have the ability to access it right here in Dominica,” Skerrit said. “No longer shall you have to take the ferry or have to travel on LIAT to go out of the country to have an MRI done anymore. They will be coming to us because we have the HiFu Machine that no one else in the Eastern Caribbean has…”
Skerrit said commissioning the new hospital is a dream come through for him because he had envisioned the ribbon-cutting ceremony since he assumed office as prime minister.
“I said at the groundbreaking ceremony that this hospital will be a symbol of who and what we are as a people and that still rings true today,” he stated. “This quality of healthcare is the first for Dominica and it is testament to how our health sector is being radically improved under the Labour Party administration.”
The state-of-the-art hospital boasts of several facilities which include –
- Accident and emergency building
- An operating theatre
- Four doctors clinics
- Two isolation rooms
- Diagnostic department and fully equipped medical laboratory
- A blood bank
- An ultramodern medical technology wing
- A dialysis unit – the largest in the country
- An ambulatory daycare unit
- A helipad
The helipad will come in the second phase of the hospital construction, Skerrit disclosed. He added the Chinese government has made funds available to commence on the second phase before the end of the year, and there wouldn’t be the need for helicopters to pick patients from the Douglas-Charles or Canefield airports since they can pick people directly at the hospital’s helipad.
He urged everyone, including the opposition, to see the new hospital in a positive light and never to associate any negativity to it. He said the best medical minds in the country will be employed to work at the hospital and only the brightest healthcare professionals will attend to patients there.
This article is copyright © 2019 DOM767
