Tuesday, March 22, 2011

CT Scanner Donated

Persons afflicted with certain illnesses will be able to save money and at the same time speed up their recovery. 

That was pointed out by Derry Williams speaking on behalf of the Bank of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Williams was at Victoria Park last Friday, March 11. That was when his bank, along with the National Insurance Services, handed over a CT Scan machine to the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

The equipment was bought for EC$1M, a cost  shared equally between the two entities.


Williams outlined that the provision of the new machine “signals an important step forward in the provision of health care in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.” 

He pointed to savings which persons will engender: no expense for airfares to go abroad to use such machines; relieved air ambulance costs, accommodation for relatives accompanying them, and other additional expenses. 

As far as Williams was concerned, the purchase and eventual activation of the CT Scan machine was tantamount to a removal of a “heavy financial burden,” while at the same time speeding up the recovery process.



The machine may result in less business to the bank, but Williams was happy that patients will not have to withdraw from their accounts, or borrow money to attend to their medical needs. 

And even as he referred to the purchase of the CT Scan Machine as a “serious financial investment,” he described the purchase as sustaining the bank’s tradition of contributing to this nation’s social and overall development. 

He urged technicians, doctors and administrators responsible for ensuring the use of the equipment  to take care of it.
Improving quality of service

His sentiments were echoed by Joy Matthews from the National Insurance Services Board. 
She looked at the CT Scan Machine as a useful tool that will contribute to the quality of life here. 

“Health care is not an option but a necestsary prescription,” Mathews indicated. 

Health Minister Cecil Mc Kie welcomed the partnership which led to the purchase of the machine. He looked at the new provision as fitting in with the overall improvement in the delivery of health care. 

He pointed to the costs patients had to endure as a consequence of having to go abroad for CT Scans, citing 300 as the number of persons who had to seek such services overseas, over the last three years.



Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves praised Dr Rosalind Ambrose whom he described as a pioneer in the CT Scan services. 

The CT Scan Machine ought to be running by May, according to Dr. Gonsalves. By then, he expects that a second such facility will be in place. 

The Vincentian Prime Minister used the occasion to highlight this country’s “sound primary health care system.”

 For him, secondary health services were excellent, but he pointed out that at the tertiary health care level there “were some deficiencies which must be corrected.”

http://www.thevincentian.com/dcmain.aspx?p=250&i=7055&skin=72&tID=198

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