The various wards at the Princess Alexandra Hospital will now be fitted with fifteen sets of diagnostic equipment within easy reach of the care-givers. The aim is to enable medical and nursing staff to determine the health conditions of patients and to provide the necessary treatment for them.
The donor is LIME Anguilla which has donated just under US$17,000 to the Health Authority to purchase the equipment. The first portion of the money, amounting to US$5,000, was provided last year to cover the cost of four of the diagnostic sets. A cheque for the balance of US$11,990, for the other eleven sets, was presented on Tuesday this week by LIME’s General Manager in Anguilla, Mark Romney.
Just before presenting the symbolic cheque, Mr. Romney said LIME was aware that the Health Authority and, by extension, the Government, did not have the financial means to purchase the equipment. He was pleased that LIME had fulfilled an undertaken to fully fund all the diagnostic sets. He commended Angeline Henry and Jane Carty of the procurement section of the Health Authority whose efforts had led to the fulfilment of the commitment made by the telecommunications company.
“This is LIME care and by that I mean we are very committed, as a corporate citizen, to make sure that we in Anguilla can provide health services for all,” Mr. Romney said. “I know there are a number of other projects in the pipeline at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and bit by bit, in partnership with the Health Authority of Anguilla, we will seek to undertake, as best we can, financial contributions towards seeing the realisation of that dream in terms of health for all in Anguilla.”
Mr. Romney alluded to public criticisms of the health services in Anguilla, but noted that patient care was both a difficult and thankless job and that the professionals were doing their best with the available equipment. “LIME wants to make sure that it is clearly understood that there is need, and we need to respond to that need,” he went on. “Health care is everybody’s business and in order to ensure that we have a growing society, we must have a healthy society. With all the activities that may be taking place in other sectors, within our community, I think health care has to take top priority.” He hoped that patients would appreciate the level of service which is being provided to them in the partnership between LIME and the Health Authority.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Health Authority, Ralph Hodge, said LIME’s gift was a significant contribution. He disclosed that since 2010 the Government’s contribution to the health care services had decreased by 35-40%. “Because of the economic climate that we live in, our ability to generate revenue has gone down little but we have persevered,” he stated. “We realise that without a strong health service, there will not be any national development. If you do not have a healthy nation, you cannot have a prosperous nation… so health is at the core of our existence.”
Mr. Hodge said the Health Authority was grateful for the contributions from LIME and other donors but he singled out the telecommunications company “as always the bigger and better donor.”
Dr. Kennedy Simmonds, Director of Medical Services, joined in thanking LIME Anguilla for funding the equipment. He said the diagnostic sets were modern replacements of the traditional medical tools, and would provide the basic means of testing patients for high blood pressure, ear and eye infections and other conditions.
The presentation ceremony was attended by a number of senior personnel of various departments of the Health Authority.
