St Kitts and Nevis: Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew highlighted the significance of constructing a smart hospital during a virtual interview held on Saturday, March 11, 2023. PM Drew said that it is not a choice but a mandate to deal with the issues of climate change.
The Prime Minister highlighted that critical issues arise when it comes to climate change as the country could be affected by stronger hurricanes. Secondly, the insidious changes of the increase in the temperature also create problems for the infrastructure. The hospitals are having leaking issues due to climate change because the hospital is not really built to deal with climate change.
He added that he also held a meeting with the health ministry to deal with this issue, and it has been decided that St Kitts and Nevis needs smart, climate-smart hospitals.
PM Terrance Drew added that as the Minister of Health, he needs to make sure that the country gets the modernization of the health sector, and his administration is working to quickly move along with that by upgrading the health care system by not just a new building and equipment but also in terms of structure and quality of healthcare delivery.
He added that his administration is looking to complete the hospital in this term so that citizens don’t need to travel outside to get quality healthcare services. Furthermore, he stressed that he is not waiting for the new hospital to upgrade the quality of services, and the health ministry is already set to introduce some changes.
Prime Minister Drew said that St Kitts and Nevis already has a new set of doctors who have come into the system because the country needed more doctors to stabilize the system, and citizens will see immediate improvement.
“I’ve also met with the nurses, and we have put structures in place to make sure that we improve the quality of delivery of healthcare. And I want to thank all the health workers. Nurses and doctors have been working very hard in their own right to put forward a healthcare system for people,” added the PM.
While addressing the new technologies recently introduced in St Kitts and Nevis in the health sector, Dr Terrance Drew said, “We have also gone into dialysis, and we have done some work there to improve it. We know we have more work to do, and we are procuring new dialysis machines so that everyone can get treatment.”
He also highlighted that the construction of the smart hospital in the island nation would build the trust of visitors as several people don’t visit the island because they feel the country is short on medical services.
“We want to boost our private health offering so that people can travel from the United States and come to St Kitts and Nevis to have procedures done. That is why we also have a state-of-the-art hospital that will help in St Kitts that people have confidence,” added the PM.
