Saint Lucia’s Health Minister has expressed concern that violence and road accidents are putting a strain on the Island’s health services and taking a toll on health professionals at the hospitals and other health care facilities.
Moses Jn Baptiste spoke to reporters on Tuesday after the fatal shooting of 38-year-old nurse Keziah Wilson.
Police said the Goodlands, Castries, resident sustained a gunshot wound to the head at Goodlands.
She was in her car at the time.
“This is very sad,” the Health Minister told reporters on the sidelines of a House of Assembly meeting regarding the country’s 63rd homicide.
And he expressed condolences to the family of the deceased.
Regarding the spike in violence, Jn Baptiste noted that when people get injured, hospitals have to engage the services of the police or private security to ensure the safety of staff and patients.
And he recalled that recently, the OKEU Hospital appealed to the public to lessen the burden.
“This is a very serious problem for the hospitals, and it continues to strain our services, and medical care is diverted from regular care to emergencies. When you have emergencies, you can well imagine almost all hands have to be on deck,” the Vieux Fort North MP explained.
“So this is a serious problem, and we continue to advocate for more peaceful means of settling disputes. But also we continue to advocate to the whole of society to assist the police in getting to the bottom of these homicides,” Jn Baptiste stated.
Headline photo: Stock image
i can understand that the rate of violence and accidents for true must stop but the last i recall are hospitals not the ones to deal with emergency? so you saying regular care has to be diverted to emergency i am baffled at this.
so you removing the blame on yourself and you putting it on people? smh bro i suggest you guys do something so that emergency professionals get the equipment and man power that they require. if yall were treating the nurses better then maybe most of them would not have to migrate to other countries where the pay and benefits are better.
i remember that every year or every how many years that slaspa normally has a mass casualty simulation exercise where they are assessed on responding to a situation so if you telling me this then the hospitals are not ready and will never be ready if a mass casualty situation if it were to occur.
it putting a strain??? it have to because they killing our nurses
Meanwhile we have student doctors who have completed their studies and can’t get an internship because those in charge and the MOH do not have the foresight to increase intake to reduce the backlog of those waiting since covid!!! No wonder we have such a serious brain drain when it comes to medical professionals. They are also bias toward foreigners not remembering that many of our very own have secured employment in other countries. We should never be turning away good medical personnel but it seems that this is what obtains here. The dinosaurs in charge with no foresight need to step aside and give the young people a chance and stop putting hurdles in place to frustrate them!