In the most recent Government Press Conference on Monday, July 7th, the Honourable Senior Ministerial Advisor in Health, Mr. Evans McNeil Rogers, spoke on various aspects of health facilities and services in Anguilla that are subject to improvement.
“There are a number of issues that we have been dealing with, and we will have to continue to deal with them going forward, in our plight to improve the quality of services,” he admitted.
“There are issues with regard to the level of staffing. Our health facilities are understaffed in almost every department – whether it is ancillary staff, or housekeeping, maintenance, nursing, allied health care professionals, security, receptionists, medical doctors and dentists, and their supporting staff.
“At the moment we are definitely understaffed” he lamented. “As a result of this, there is no doubt that public perception in terms of enthusiasm with respect to the current staff is not what it supposed to be. But, they are all human beings, of course.”
At the same time, Mr. Rogers had some degree of good news to share as far as staffing is concerned: “We are making some headway though, in terms of increasing our numbers. Two internists have now joined the staff. One started on July 1st, and the other one is actually starting today, July 7th.”
He mentioned that the Ministry is looking at equipping each member of staff with courses in soft skills training. Essentially, these courses will help the staff to deal with customers/clients who display different kinds of temperaments. He noted that it is the responsibility of each healthcare professional to be able to effectively do their job at hand in terms of professional patient care.
With regard to mentally challenged patients, Mr. Rogers said: “We are taking a serious look at treating our mentally challenged patients here in Anguilla. For quite a long time this has been talked about, but nothing has been done, including the years that I have sat at the table. But now that I am focused on health alone, we are looking at the challenges of mental health more seriously, as one of our prime concerns.”
“To that end,” he said, “we intend to have a psychiatrist working on the island 24/7, and a Psychiatric Ward Manager will be working at the facility by the end of August. So we are expecting our psychiatric patients to be more properly treated.”
Mr. Rogers also said that plans are being made to upgrade the psychiatric facility so that it would be able to accommodate patients with more chronic psychiatric conditions. He noted that provisions will be made in the next annual budget for this more efficient facility.
