District Medical Officer of Health Dr. Roger Duncan has announced that they have begun to streamline their services and have submitted for inclusion in the next budget a request for the acquisition of point of care testing equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Duncan made the announcement at the ceremony to officially hand over a medical evacuation vessel to the Coast Guard. According to Dr. Duncan, the testing equipment will rule out critical cases thus medical staff will \u201cbe able to differentiate who\u2019s having a heart attack and those not having a heart attack.\u201d The District Medical Officer thanked Commander Cain and his team at the Coast Guard for the evacuations conducted thus far \u201csafely\u2026 no injury or loss of life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The medical evacuation vessel is the newest addition to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines\u2019 Coast Guard fleet, SVG 05 Balliceaux. The vessel, equipped with firefighting capability, will assist residents of the Grenadines, and others in need of urgent medical care and on sea emergencies. The vessel was acquired at a cost of over US $1.6 million from the Damen Shipyards Group in Holland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commander of the Coast Guard Mr. Brenton Cain said the current boats used to transport persons in need of medical care are not suited to the task. \u201cSo this challenge was routed to the Ministry of National Security and we were told to source a suitable vessel for the mission of medical evacuation. The Government did not hesitate to support this idea,\u201d Commander Cain stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commissioner of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force Colin John disclosed that thus far they have conducted over 80 evacuations \u2014 \u201c52% from Bequia, 22% from Canouan, 19% from Union [Island] and the rest between Mayreau and mainland St. Vincent and the Grenadines.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister of Finance Hon. Camillo Gonsalves, said the PM as Minister of National Security has made it his business to invest in the Coast Guard. The Minister of Finance said the vessel\u2019s hand over is a day for celebration. \u201cWe have more fisher folk that will be working in between our islands because we\u2019re investing in fisheries so we have to also improve our Coast Guard Services\u2026 And I want to thank the Hon. Prime Minister for the very significant vision and investment that he\u2019s placed in that regard,\u201d Minister Gonsalves stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want the Garifuna to hear why we chose the Balliceaux. The Balliceaux for us is not simply a rocky Island out there\u2026 but Balliceaux means something to our Nation, to our soul, to our spirit, to our civilisation,\u201dPrime Minister Dr. The Hon. Ralph Gonsalves explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Gonsalves stated that there are a couple of things on the SVG 05 Balliceaux to be fine-tuned before its commissioning. \u201cOne or two things slip them but it ain\u2019t go slip us so we have asked them to come and correct a couple of things,\u201d Prime Minister stated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Minister of National Security further disclosed that Coast Guard staff will be trained in Emergency Medical Technician course to be facilitated by Damen Shipyards Group. \u201cThose who are going to be aboard the vessel not only have to know how to operate the vessel \u2014 you have to know how to deal with the patients who are brought on aboard the vessel,\u201d Dr. Gonsalves said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The medical evacuation vessel, an initiative of the Ministry of National security, Air and Sea Port Development, is a Stan Patrol (SPa) vessel 1605 which was handed over on Thursday, 15th October, 2020 at the Coast Guard Base, Calliaqua.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
District Medical Officer of Health Dr. Roger Duncan has announced that they have begun to streamline their services and have submitted for inclusion in the next budget a request for the acquisition of point of care testing equipment. Dr. Duncan made the announcement at the ceremony to officially hand over a medical evacuation vessel to the Coast Guard. According to Dr. Duncan, the testing equipment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":16561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-mainstory","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n