The medical laboratory at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, and by extension the people of Anguilla, have recently been the beneficiaries of a goodwill gesture from The United Way, a Trinidad-based charity.
On December 21st, an appreciable handing-over ceremony was held at the hospital’s lab to acknowledge the receipt of four much-needed pieces of essential equipment: state-of-the art machines that will go a long way in helping to meet the needs of patients who require pertinent laboratory testing.
Acting as a facilitator for The United Way was Father Xaun of the St. Gerards Roman Catholic Church, while the sourcing of the equipment and the smooth process of acquiring them were done by Mrs. Helen Peabody. A prayer of thanksgiving for the appreciated lab gifts was offered by Dr. Wanda John.
Accepting the equipment, the CEO of the Health Authority of Anguilla, Mrs. Maeza Demis-Adams, expressed much gratitude to The United Way, as well as to Father Xaun. She explained: “When The United Way of Trinidad contacted us, because they are an NGO and a charitable organization, they could not donate directly to the Ministry. So they had to identify an organization in Anguilla whom they could trust enough to facilitate the process. It warms my heart that they identified the Catholic Church who made the process so easy through Father Xaun.”
Father Xaun then commented: “I would like to thank The United Way for trusting the church as a facilitator of these donations. We were happy to participate in the process. I pray that God would bless the staff here, and that they would use the machines to help the sick and benefit many patients.”
Ms. Everett Duncan, the Laboratory Manager, was elated with the donations from The United Way, and spoke in tones of gratitude and high appreciation: “Today we are here to celebrate and thank The United Way of Trinidad for providing us with the funds so that we could have acquired this cutting-edge technology. Through their contributions, we were able to procure four pieces of equipment.
“These machines are: a Thermo Scientific Megafuge 8 Centrifuge; a Alcor Scientific iSED machine; a Tosoh Automated GLycohaemoglobin Analyser HLC 723 GX; and a Biomerieux Bact/Alert 3D 60 Blood Culture machine.
“The centrifuge machine was a need that was created this year when the one that we had stopped working due to electrical issues. The iSED machine will allow us to provide an ESR which is a monitoring test for chronic conditions within 10 minutes. Using the manual method, this test used to take one hour to do. With laboratory medicine turn-around, time is the standard used to measure efficiency.
“The glycohaemoglobin machine provides the monitoring test for diabetes and is the gold standard in this area. We are excited about this machine, as it not only monitors HBA1c levels but it can identify persons with haemoglobin variants. The Bact/Alert Blood Culture Machine is an automated system for the culture of bacteria in blood. This replaces a manual system and it will alert, in real time, any positive blood cultures so that follow-up work can be done to isolate and identify organisms/bacteria present in the blood.
“The generosity and thoughtfulness of The United Way of Trinidad and Tobago Grant, in providing the funds for these pieces of equipment, is very much appreciated and we are very grateful. Thank you for choosing to disperse the funds in our area.”
The CEO, Mrs. Demis-Adams, emphasized: “ We would really like to thank The United Way for reaching out to us as they did. Normally, when one is making a donation, they don’t really keep persistent contact with the potential recipient. But The United Way kept on calling and making sure that everything was in place to deliver these donations. I would particularly like to thank Dr. Santos, of The United Way, who was very concerned and persistent about providing these state-of-the-art machines.
“Now we are recipients of these four excellent lab machines that we all can be proud of. I am hoping that they will meet the needs of the lab, and they would avoid Anguillians the cost of going to St. Maarten for such tests, or waiting for results while we would have sent samples away for testing.”
