Minister of Health and Wellness, the Hon. Michael Darville, toured public clinics across the country with a view to improving infrastructure. He was accompanied by ministry officials as well as architects, engineers and quality surveyors.
In comments about his findings the Minister said, “some of the clinics are compromised. We have some roof damages, we have issues as it relates to staff shortages. Alot of the challenges we face is with air condition and electrical deficiencies at our clinics and we intend to really address them, to prepare so that no further damages will take place at the clinics so that when the IDB loan facilities for restoration and repairs take place we will make sure that the assessments are satisfactory and we are able to finish the work in a timely fashion. My job now is to basically make sure that the clinics are ready, to award the necessary contracts to get them up to par and to ensure that the preparatory work for the activation of the IDB loans which will be the latter part of this year, early next year, would be in place.
Minister Darville also discussed the Mental Health Bill which he introduced in the last session of the House of Assembly. It is expected to be debated in the upcoming session slated to begin in mid September. The Minister said of the bill, “this bill, I think, leads the way in the Caribbean. We’re serious about addressing the mental health issues and we want to take full control of the issues that we constantly see popping up in the community. We have issues with post traumatic stress disorders associated with Covid, Dorian, Hurricane Matthew and the list goes on and on. We have mechanisms in place to deal with that. We have tools and strategies to help individuals who are homeless, who have mental illness. In the bill we speak about protecting those who have mental illness to ensure that their lives and their ability to earn an income is protected and we are about to go into public consultation in the community now to see exactly if there is any additional things we need to put in the bill.”
