In the Senate debate on the Child Protection Bill, Senator Andrew Mallalieu suggested there was a decline in healthcare and education with high levels of charitable donations to the healthcare system, and private schools becoming the main choice of students seeking secondary education.

But Senator Lisa Cummins, the leader of government business in the Senate, pushed back on the real estate executive’s charges, saying healthcare and education have been public policy priorities since independence in 1966.

Senator Mallalieu referenced key points from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is cited in the child protection legislation that was passed last week in the lower House of Assembly.

“Point 24 of the convention states children have the right to the best possible healthcare,” he said. “Point 28 says every child has a right to education, with primary education being free…. Point 29 notes children’s education should help them fully develop their personalities, talents and abilities.”

While acknowledging the convention sets minimum children’s rights standards which countries can exceed, Senator Mallalieu questioned the Mottley administration’s priorities.

“Having understood that, I worry greatly about what our priorities have been,” he declared.

On healthcare, the senator said: “We hear of difficulties in getting care at hospitals, polyclinics, wherever it might be. I worry when I see the amount of private charity money that has to go into our healthcare system to keep it running.”

Regarding education, the businessman lamented a perceived decline: “My recollection of the 11-Plus is we all aspired to go to a public school, that’s where the best secondary education was available…. Today, that’s completely reversed. The first choice is not to go into the public school system, because it’s a difficult place. If you’re not a top child and you can’t teach yourself, you will possibly not get a good education there.”

Senator Mallalieu stressed the importance of better working conditions and higher pay for teachers and healthcare workers: “If it’s going to be your top priority, I would think the people who work in those areas would be our smartest people who are paid the most and work in the best conditions, and I am fearful today that that is not true.

“In our school system, it is not the best facilities. Our teachers are not paid the highest salaries. Our doctors, nurses, healthcare providers are not working in the best conditions,” he lamented.

But defending the administration’s record, Senator Cummins said education and healthcare have been the two largest areas of public spending for successive governments since Independence.

It was “misleading to attempt to say that those have not been government priorities”, she said.

Acknowledging historical investment in health and education, Senator Mallalieu called for even greater emphasis: “Perhaps I would like to see even more prioritisation.”

He noted recent positive steps such as the government’s acquisition of the defunct Ursuline Convent private school, and partnerships with Ivy League universities in the US, including a memorandum of understanding with Columbia University’s teaching college.

Reiterating his support for the Bill and the need for an ongoing focus on the UN children’s rights convention, the independent senator said: “I do hope that we will focus on these as we have done and will continue to do, so that our children can have the best education and can look after the [Senate] president and I in our old age.”

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A Ministry of Health bond that stored mosquito fogging chemicals and other vector control supplies was Tuesday afternoon destroyed by fire, the Guyana Fire Service said on Wednesday. “Vapor from gasoline tank came into contact with heated exhaust pipe from fogging machine same ignited and exploded,” the fire service told Demerara Waves Online News. Residents ...

View the full post Care-Transition Clinic accepting applications online for General Nursing Programme associate degree on NOW Grenada.

Newly appointed chief executive Neil Clark has outlined a comprehensive vision to overhaul healthcare delivery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. 

Clark, a seasoned healthcare executive who took up his post on April 2, laid out plans to address pressing issues and ensure “citizens receive the quality care they deserve”.

A key priority is improving the long-troubled accident and emergency (A&E) department, which Clark acknowledged had been blighted by overcrowding before its recent expansion. “It was very cramped, very tight. It didn’t look good. It didn’t feel good. Too many patients waiting, family members with them,” he said. “Working in that department must [have been] extremely stressful for the staff.”

But Clark insisted enlarging A&E alone would not solve the systemic problems. “It’s not just about having the A&E department the right size. What happens in the A&E is a consequence of a whole system, a whole healthcare system.”  

The CEO said he intends to work with polyclinics, private clinics and the Ministry of Health to educate the public and reduce unnecessary A&E visits. “A&E departments are for accidents and emergencies. Not all the patients in the A&E department are accidents or emergencies,” he said. “Some of those emergencies could have been avoided … people’s strokes, people’s heart attacks, and people’s chronic conditions could be managed better, stop them coming into the hospital when they’re acutely ill.”

Clark outlined a “holistic approach” to improving patient flow from admission to discharge, calling for coordinated efforts across departments like pathology and radiology to optimise operational efficiency. He also plans to review procedures for dealing with escalating A&E demand.

Lengthy waiting times for outpatient appointments and diagnostics are another “challenge”, Clark said, citing a lack of centralised data collection. But he revealed a new health information system will be implemented later this year to identify and address bottlenecks.

“We don’t have a health information system, so it’s quite hard sometimes to capture information on the waiting times,” he said. “We should be going out for tender for that system this summer, so we can bring in a system that will help us then gather the information to make sure that we’re very clear on where the pain points are.”

Clark also plans to closely scrutinise the functioning of the hospital’s wards to ease bottlenecks preventing patients from being transferred out of A&E.

“If the A&E department’s full because it can’t move patients from the department onto a ward, upstairs into the medical beds, we need to make sure that the wards are functioning as efficiently and as effectively as possible,” he said.

“So we’ve already started some work with the medical leads and how we can maybe manage the medical beds slightly differently to improve flow through those inpatient beds.”

At the other end of the care pathway, Clark said he must collaborate with external parties to ensure discharged patients have appropriate places to go, highlighting the need for “where will the elderly for care patients go and what are the different options”.

To drive these ambitious reforms, the new CEO has introduced “balanced scorecards” to identify top priorities and risks. He has also tasked the chief operating officer with developing “plans for how we’re going to tackle some of those areas” including outpatient waits, theatre delays and cancellations, and A&E waiting times.

Clark insisted data analysis would be central, saying: “I’ve already requested and redirected the chief operating officer to focus on what I call patient flow, how patients flow through the system and quality outcomes.”

The CEO, who has hit the ground running just weeks into his tenure, projected confidence that the QEH can turn around its fortunes despite long-standing issues.

“As a team of people, we can find solutions to this and I’ve seen that done in different places before,” Clark affirmed. 

(RG)

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Jenna Gibson was just 39 when she was training for a marathon five years ago — but her plans were cut short by a stroke that almost took her life.

Nearly 60% of stroke deaths occur in women, according to a recent study by Mayo Clinic — and now Gibson, a Michigan mother of two, aims to help others to be more aware and prioritize their health.

"Once I learned that strokes are happening to younger people, I had to share my story," she told Fox News Digital. 

5 WOMEN’S HEALTH TIPS TO PREVENT AND DETECT STROKES, ACCORDING TO CARDIOLOGISTS

"In most cases, strokes are preventable if you know what to look for."

On the day of Gibson’s stroke, she was feeling great.

It was a beautiful day, she’d nailed a presentation at work, and she was enjoying a walk outside with her mother after dinner.

"We were talking about how I was training for the Detroit marathon for my 40th birthday, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, it felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks," she told Fox News Digital.

DOG ALERTS FAMILY, SAVES TEXAS TEENAGER FROM LIFE-THREATENING STROKE: 'KEEPING GUARD'

Gibson stopped walking, then suddenly fell over into the grass. 

Her mother thought she was joking at first. "She actually took a picture of me lying in the grass, saying, ‘C’mon, get up, what are you doing?’"

Her mother helped her up, but Gibson couldn’t walk straight. 

"I felt like I was drunk — something just wasn't right," she said.

Even so, Gibson did not experience any of the textbook symptoms of a stroke, such as the facial droop, severe headache or vision disturbances.

They made it back home, where Gibson assumed she was having a migraine. She took some headache medicine and went to bed.

"A couple of hours later, I woke up and still didn't feel right — I couldn't get out of bed, I couldn't move," she recalled. 

TIAS AND MINI-STROKE RISKS: CARDIOLOGIST SHARES WARNING SIGNS AND PREVENTION TIPS

That’s when they headed to the emergency room. Gibson’s mother told the medical team that her daughter was having trouble walking and might be having a stroke.

"They checked me over, did all the tests, and didn't see the typical signs that they would be looking for," Gibson said. "Part of it was because I was young."

She added, "I didn't have the facial droop. I could walk, although not very well. I could get some words out."

After a CT scan, the medical team decided that Gibson was likely having an optic migraine. The next morning, when she still wasn’t feeling right, the neurologist ordered another scan with contrast — and that time, the stroke finally showed up.

"They could see that there was a blockage on the left side of my brain, and I was actively having a stroke," she said. 

Gibson was immediately airlifted to another hospital, where she had emergency brain surgery to remove the blood clot. 

"There was obviously a risk of death — if we didn't move fast enough, the time frame would be over," she said.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE A CONCERN WORLDWIDE, LEADING TO DEATH, STROKE, HEART ATTACK: HOW TO STOP A 'SILENT KILLER'

As she was flown to the hospital, Gibson said she felt certain she was going to die and would never again see her husband or her daughters, who were just 8 and 4 at the time.

"I thought I’d never get to see my children grow up and get married, or that I’d have to live in some kind of vegetative state and would never work again."

"I was thinking, ‘Did I tell my girls enough times that Mommy loves them? Does my husband know how proud I am of him?’"

The next thing she knew, Gibson was waking up from surgery in the ICU — and facing a long road to recovery.

"At first, I couldn't speak at all. I couldn't move my right side. I was trapped in my head — I could see what was happening and hear people asking me questions, but I couldn't answer."

Over the next few days, Gibson said her capabilities slowly started coming back. 

She received speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy — and over time began to regain movement on her right side. 

REPORTS REVEAL THE RISK FOR STROKES IS ON THE RISE IN YOUNG ADULTS

Her first "assignment" was to tell her daughters that she loved them and that "Mommy’s going to be OK."

After a couple of weeks, Gibson returned home and continued with outpatient therapy for three hours a day, three days a week for a four-month period.

"It was during the first six weeks that we saw the quickest improvement, and then after that, it was slower and slower," she said.

"I had to relearn everything. And now, by the grace of God, I can do all the things."

Today, Gibson is still completely numb on the entire right side of her body. She also still sometimes struggles with finding the right words while speaking, she said, especially when she’s tired or stressed.

"But if you saw me, I look like a normal person," she said.

And in a full-circle moment, Gibson was finally able to complete the half-marathon last October.

Dr. Annie Tsui, chief of neurology at Access TeleCare, who is based in Texas, emphasized the prevalence of strokes among women and urged awareness.

"Strokes can occur for various reasons across different age groups and genders," Tsui, who was not involved in Gibson’s care, told Fox News Digital. "Even though strokes can occur at any age, women between the ages of 20 and 39 are at twice the risk compared to men."

While the primary risk factors for stroke are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and diabetes, the causes for strokes in younger age groups differ from those typically associated with older people, Tsui noted. 

Those may include cardiac issues, blood clotting disorders, genetic predispositions, vascular abnormalities or trauma.

"Although no one is completely immune to the risk of stroke, individuals at higher risk should work with their doctor to develop a prevention plan," Tsui advised. "In general, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is crucial, as up to 80% of strokes can be prevented."

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It's crucial to be aware of the symptoms to receive treatment as quickly as possible, according to Tsui.

She recommends using the FAST acronym, shown below, as a convenient tool for identifying stroke indicators. 

"The chances of survival and positive outcomes are highest when the patient receives prompt medical attention," Tsui told Fox News Digital. 

Some stroke treatments are only effective if administered within three hours of when symptoms begin, she warned — with the risk of permanent brain damage or death rising with each passing minute.

"It's important to be vigilant in recognizing stroke symptoms and to seek medical assistance immediately at the first sign," Tsui said. 

"Every second counts in reducing the risk of brain injury, permanent disability or even death."

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“Pineapples can also have an array of health benefits to women specifically as it contains compounds that support bodily functions”

View the full post Pineapples and women’s health on NOW Grenada.

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On Thursday May 23, 2024 an eight-month-old child was referred to the Accident and Emergency Department (AED) of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by a private medical practitioner. The child arrived at the AED in an unconscious state and died following failed resuscitation efforts.

It is known that in keeping with common practice for children of such age, the child had been immunised. The immunisations were administered at the St Philip Polyclinic including the two, four- and six-month vaccines, with the last dose being administered on April 2, 2024.

The MHW, however, wishes to clearly state that the child had not received the MMR vaccines as being misleadingly stated in the public domain. The policy of the MHW is that minimum age at which this vaccine is administered to children is one year of age.

In keeping with the Laws of Barbados, in cases of sudden and unnatural death, an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of this unfortunate death. The MHW takes this opportunity to extend its condolences to the family of the deceased child.

Vaccines have been issued by the expanded programme of immunisation in Barbados since the late 1970s. The vaccines used locally have been demonstrated to be effective at reducing the risk of disease. The Ministry of Health and Wellness reminds parents to keep their children’s vaccinations up-to-date according to the recommended schedule to the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases.

The Ministry further wants to clarify the incorrect information on COVID deaths in the public domain. These numbers stand at 648 with no deaths in the last reporting period of April 13th and May 10th. The COVID19 vaccine was made available to the public by Ministry of Health and Wellness during the pandemic as part of its commitment to use evidence-based measures to reduce the risk of severe illness and death.

The MHW urges members of the public to desist from spreading alarm amongst the population through the practice of maliciously circulating misinformation.

(Statement made by Dr Ingrid Cumberbatch, Senior Medical Officer of Health (South), Ministry of Health and Wellness on 26th May 2024.)

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Michelle Straughn, walk manager for the event, speaking to the media after the starter fired the pistol to get walkers, runners, rollerbladers, skaters and children on scooters, underway, expressed her enthusiasm about the growing numbers and the importance of raising awareness for prostate cancer.

“This is now our second walk for the Prostate Cancer Walk. We started last year, it was our first. And we’ve certainly done a lot better this year in terms of numbers,” Straughn said. 

“We were expecting maybe about, I would say, 2,000 persons. And I believe that we would have gotten that. And we’re all excited because this means that awareness is spreading.”

Rollerbladers also took part in this year’s event.

She noted the initiative, aimed at bringing awareness to prostate cancer, served a crucial role as there was a critical need for early detection, not only for cancer but cancer of the prostate.

“It’s so important. The early detection of prostate cancer, as you know, is all about the males. And we have to protect them. So we’re very, very happy to see the response. And we know that next year will be better, because we have a bigger and better plan for next year. Maybe a lot more activities on the day. Listen out for it.”

There were some changes made this time around to the route, to accommodate different participants’ preferences. Whereas last year there was one route, Straughn explained some members of the public called for there to be a run in addition to the walk and this time around, the run was added along a separate route. (RG)

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Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday presented Prime Minister Mia Mottley with the Director-General’s Award for Global Health.

Mottley is one of three people being awarded this year.

The awards are usually presented during the WHO’s most important meeting of the year — the World Health Assembly, which is being held on Monday. However, Mottley was presented with the award at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday to allow her to travel to Antigua and Barbuda for the United Nations fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4), which begins on Monday.

Back in 2019, the WHO Director-General gave Global Health Leaders Awards to a number of individuals who have shown outstanding commitment to public health goals. The awards are now presented on an annual basis to selected individuals or groups of individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership to achieve tangible health impacts.

In her acceptance speech, Mottley thanked the WHO Director-General for being there and for steadfastly supporting small countries.

“[The] COVID pandemic for us was the wild wild west in every sense of the word. When we could access goods, we learned that export restrictions would be put on them. When we could access vaccines, export restrictions were also put on them. When we could pay, we couldn’t get orders because our orders were simply too small to be taken, whether for equipment or medicines,” Mottley said.

Both the WHO and the Pan American Health Organization stood up for the region, Mottley said, while also paying tribute to PAHO’s Director Emeritus Dr Carissa F Etienne who died last year.

“You were the two people who were directly accessible at midnight … and that speaks volumes to the difference you made in saving lives — I dare say hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives across the Small Island Developing States,” Mottley said.

“I thank you on behalf of my country for the honour which you are conferring on me. I take it not as my own, I take it as an honour to Barbados.”

Mottely also saluted the island’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Kenneth George, “who was on the front-lines, but I also want to salute my Ministers of Health, Lt Col Jeffrey Bostick and Senior Minister Jerome Walcot, who effectively carried and continue to carry the day-to-day battle in this critical area of health.”

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