They showed up in trainers, moved with purpose and left with prizes – but the real win, health officials said on Tuesday, was a commitment to more active living, as the National Sneaker Day campaign drew praise for turning a playful challenge into a serious movement for wellness.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness, in collaboration with the National Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Commission, celebrated the winners of the September 26 campaign, encouraging Barbadians to move more and live healthier.

At a prize-giving ceremony in the ministry’s boardroom at the Frank Walcott Building, individuals and organisations were recognised for helping make National Sneaker Day a “resounding success”. The campaign generated 117 social media entries, with 111 meeting the official criteria.

Chair of the NCD Commission, Suleiman Bulbulia, applauded the enthusiasm of participants, saying it reflected a growing awareness of the need for healthier choices. “You have done us a tremendous job of promoting this campaign,” he said. “We want to bring a message to the Barbadian public that we need to do a lot more in our lifestyle choices so we can bring down the number of NCD incidences in our country.”

Bulbulia described the NCD crisis as one of the greatest health challenges facing Barbados. “Sadly, too many Barbadians are losing their lives to NCDs,” he said. “Eighty per cent of our deaths or more are attributed to NCDs – diabetes, hypertension, cancer – and now we have added mental health to that list.”

He stressed that most NCDs are preventable through better choices. “It’s not something that passes from one person to the next. It’s choices we make,” he said. “Physical activity is one of those choices. It just takes a little shift in our mindset to say, “let’s get up and make some movement.”

Among the winners honoured were the City of Bridgetown Co-operative Credit Union’s representative, Jamal Maynard, for Most Creative Post; Sagicor Life Inc. for Most Liked Post; Salena Small as Individual Winner; and Ignatius Byer Primary School, led by principal Andrew Thompson, as Group Winner. Bulbulia said he was particularly pleased to see a school among the awardees. “If you start young, we know that will continue throughout the person’s life,” he said.

Senior Medical Officer of Health, Dr Kimberly Phillips, commended all who took part in the campaign and encouraged Barbadians to stay active. “About 200 years ago there was no need for exercise,” she said. “Our lives were hard enough. Today, we have to figure out how to push physical activity back into our lives because of how sedentary we have become.”

Dr Phillips said the ministry wants to make movement fun again. “We may have made exercise look hard and painful. What we’re trying to do is reverse that ideology. We want people to see movement as something they can engage in that’s enjoyable.”

Prizes included gym memberships, tickets to the Atlantis Submarine experience, and a group trip for 40 Ignatius Byer Primary pupils to the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary.

Dr Phillips reminded attendees that change must be collective. “If we are going to reverse the current situation, we have to do it together,” she said. “No man is an island. One hand washes the next, two hands wash the face. Barbados, let us continue to participate and support each other.” (LE)

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Residents in St Lucy have demanded clear proof that their water is safe to drink, said a political hopeful on Tuesday, accusing the Barbados Water Authority of offering reassurance without delivering the transparency needed to rebuild public trust.

Wayne Griffith, United Progressive Party (UPP) candidate for St Lucy, called for community-level testing — saying that people in the north continue to live in “a state of uncertainty and expense” over the quality of what flows from their taps.

He was responding to a BWA press conference in which BWA acting Chief Executive Officer Christopher Mapp sought to reassure the public that water being distributed from the Allendale Pumping Station is safe to drink. “All indications show that the water is potable,” Mapp said, adding, “Would I feel comfortable drinking it? Yes.”

But according to Griffth, such assurances have done little to ease concern. While the BWA’s tests at Allendale show safe results, “customers do not collect water directly from Allendale”, and so those results fail to reflect what people are actually experiencing at home, he said.

“The only consistent water source for many residents is the supermarket shelf,” he said, adding that households are spending hundreds of dollars each month buying bottled water on top of their regular water bills. “We urge the BWA to release test results from households in places like Hope Road, Maycocks, Pie Corner, or Checker Hall.”

Griffith also pointed to the age of the island’s water distribution system — with some mains over a century old being replaced at a cost of roughly one million dollars per kilometre — as a likely reason for the discoloured and foul-smelling water that many in the north continue to report. “These old pipes are prone to rust and corrosion. Until they’re replaced, we can’t accept the claim that the water is safe simply because the source tests clean.”

He stressed that residents’ expectations are simple: “Safe water must meet three fundamental criteria: colourless, odourless, and tasteless. Without these criteria being met, we remain unconvinced that our tap water is fit for human consumption.”

The UPP candidate insisted that residents have lost confidence in the system. “I can assure you that in St Lucy, we’re not consuming tap water that’s discoloured or foul-smelling,” he said firmly. “We are against paying the monthly garbage and sewage contribution levy, and the $32 monthly rebate.”

Griffith said that while science and testing are important, public trust must be earned through transparency and tangible results. “Regardless of the scientific assessment which the BWA presents, we will neither accept them as gospel nor be drinking the water until these critical quality issues are addressed at the point of consumption.” (LE)

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When 72-year-old Marquita Jordan first discovered a lump in her right breast over three decades ago, she never imagined it would mark the beginning of a journey defined by faith, endurance, and healing.

“I had a mass in the right breast,” she recalls to Barbados TODAY about her discovery. “I went to the doctor. She said it’s nothing to worry about. But months later, I still wasn’t satisfied.”

Unsettled by the lump, Jordan sought a second opinion. “I went to another doctor and she sent me for a test — a mammogram. I did the mammogram, and when the results came back, it showed cancer.”

The diagnosis changed everything. “She referred me to the hospital for radiotherapy,” Jordan says. “She suggested that I would have to get surgery because of the size of the mass.”

The news was devastating for Jordan, who saw it as a death sentence. “I panicked,” she admits. “Nobody ever told me that you could suffer cancer and live.”

At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Radiotherapy Department, she met two nurses who helped ease her fears. “Nurse Blackette spoke to me positively,” she said. “She says: ‘It’s not a death sentence. You could be sitting in your house, and a car could come and drive and kill you.’ That stuck in my mind.”

Encouraged by her praying mother and at her uncle’s invitation, Jordan travelled to New York to get a second opinion. “My uncle, a preacher at Grace Baptist Church in the Bronx, said: ‘Come on down.’ He and my cousin’s mother helped me get into a hospital in Manhattan.”

There, she had her first surgery in October 1992. “When they went in, they said they didn’t see anything, so I was feeling really glad. But then they did another biopsy and said they found something,” she says.

Jordan returned to Barbados later that year for radiotherapy and chemotherapy. “The radiotherapy used to be tiring because of the heat,” she says. “But what I used to do was go to radiotherapy every morning, buy a cold drink after, and then go to work.”

She recalls a conversation with another woman who was going through the same situation; when she explained that she would be heading to work after treatment, the woman was shocked. “She would reach out to me, which she did and she couldn’t understand you’re doing radiotherapy and going to work. What kind of person are you?”

She credits her family for providing the support she needed: “I had some friends who were very supportive, very, very supportive, so it helped a lot. I had a sister who died two years ago… she used to take care of my daughter, and Deborah used to take care of my daughter as well.”

Through it all, she leaned on her faith, her family, and books that shaped her healing. “I came across a book by Deepak Chopra — somebody I followed throughout my whole cancer journey. I also read Getting Well Again. The principles in those books helped me to heal and be strong.”

She incorporated meditation, yoga, acupuncture, reflexology, and dietary changes. “I did a whole course of Chinese medicine,” she says. “I believe that a combination of all of those helped me to get over cancer. The books would tell me that once you believe, you can’t let go of that belief — it would help you to heal.”

Music also plays a vital role in her recovery. “If anybody tell you that music is a healer, it really is,” she says with a smile. “I came out of a musical family. My dad was a great musician. I used to play gospel tapes loud in the district and sing. The music helped me along.”

Thirteen years later, she faced another test — colon cancer. “I had the breast cancer in 1992 and the colon cancer came around 2004,” she says. “I told the surgeon, ‘I ain’t taking no chemotherapy this time.’ It was too debilitating. But I’m still here — still living.”

Her faith remains her anchor. “I used to suffer anxiety and depression sometimes, but you just have to believe,” she says. “Faith goes a long, long, long way. In both instances, it’s my belief and my faith.”

Now a grandmother, Jordan says her story is meant to give hope. “I wanted to tell the story ever since,” she says. “I feel that telling the story will make a difference to someone. It’s not a death sentence, but you have to believe, hold on, and live one day at a time. Don’t try to live tomorrow today — it doesn’t work. That’s my philosophy.”

Now, 32 years later, Jordan says she doesn’t feel her age and believes age is just a number — a true testament to the power of the mind in the healing process.

louriannegraham@barbadostoday.bb

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Financial hardship and housing scarcity are fuelling a surge in mental health struggles among Barbadians, prompting calls for stronger social support rather than more psychiatrists.

Expressing grave concern about the rate at which Barbadians are struggling with depression and anxiety triggered by such challenges, Consultant Psychiatrist attached to the Psychiatric Hospital Dr Joy Sue told Barbados TODAY that these are among the top mental health conditions she is required to treat.

She said:  “The most common conditions that I see are persons who have depression and anxiety, or both. And then, on the other extreme, we get a lot of persons who have what we formally call dementia or major neurocognitive disorder. We get a lot of elderly people with dementia as well. Those are probably three of the more common conditions that I see in the clinic setting.

“We also have a lot of people who come, who don’t have a formal diagnosis; they are just struggling with a particular problem . . . . Maybe they are just grieving because they have lost a loved one; and, since we now have a psychologist, a lot of persons now see the psychologist for follow-up. So, the psychologists are seeing quite a number of people as well.”

Dr Sue explained that a lot of those who see the specialist are not on medication, but are receiving counselling support for their problems: “We are seeing an increase in people coming who are struggling. A lot of it is related to financial problems.

“So, even if you have persons coming forward and they are saying that they are having a relationship problem, it may not be a simple relationship problem; [but] the problem with the relationship might be complicated by the fact that the person doesn’t have financial freedom. So, then they feel tied to a relationship that is not working out.”

Sue, a prominent voice in the country’s mental healthcare community focusing on reducing stigma, also stressed that a lack of housing options is prominent among complaints by patients.

“A lot of persons don’t have good housing. They don’t have housing options; and [so] they are forced to remain in a situation that is not good… for their mental health because they don’t have anywhere else to go.”

She cited an example where many referrals she gives to her social worker for assistance are for housing needs, noting that at times the Welfare Department would help people with housing, such as paying a portion of the rent.

“But that is becoming increasingly difficult too,” she added, “because it’s hard to find landlords who are willing to accept part of the rent from welfare, because they fear the rent wouldn’t be paid on time; and then, a tenant who probably has to rely on… welfare would not look like a reliable tenant to someone.

“People find it even harder now to find places… because welfare doesn’t have a list of places. You have to find a landlord that is willing to accept the rent from them. And then the onus is on you. So, it’s very difficult for people.”

The challenges faced by people are compounded when children are involved:  “I am seeing a lot of people who have children, some very young, coming forward. And it is even more complicated when you have children involved in a situation like that. So, you are in a situation where a partner may be abusive — and I don’t necessarily mean physically abusive — a lot of partners can be psychologically or verbally abusive. So, it’s not a healthy situation for your kids, but you might not have options as to where to go.”

She noted that most of these clients do not have means either because they are unemployed or working in low-paying jobs which ill-afford any flexibility as to what they can do: “They can’t necessarily rent a place on their own. They don’t have the family support that used to be there; or the family members are not in a position to help them either.”

The psychiatrist also stressed that even though some clients experienced improved mental health, there remain major difficulties in rooting out the underlying problems for many people seeking counselling.

She said: “Some of them have been [helped]; but you must appreciate that these situations can be difficult; and it depends on the social support that is available in the community. And honestly, there is not much out there right now. So, it can be difficult to navigate these kinds of situations. You want to be able to help more, but you don’t have the options available to offer people.”

She continued: “If a person comes to me and they are depressed, I can give them medication and they can improve their mood, and that can improve their ability to deal with certain things and cope with certain things, but it may not change the underlying situation. You still need options out there to change the underlying situation that causes the depression. A lot of people don’t have those options.”

While she could point to at least one former client who reported success in turning her life around by ridding herself of her stressors, the mental health expert said this may be the exception, not the rule.

Many of her clients have been taking advantage of the government’s Special Needs Grant, a programme administered by the National Insurance and Social Security Service (NISSS), that provides financial support to individuals with specific disabilities, she noted.

Sue said: “That has been helpful for a lot of people; that was one option that wasn’t available before. So, several of my clients who have autism, I have written letters for them to get that sorted, and that has been helping some families. As you can appreciate, there are some persons, due to their mental health conditions, who can’t work at all.”

She also dismissed any notion that Barbados needs more psychiatrists to help deal with the growing incidence of mental health problems, suggesting that a strong and structured social support system may be crumbling.

“I have always said mental health in Barbados is kind of top-heavy. We have more psychiatrists in this small country per population than most other countries. Most of our Caribbean neighbours… They have very few psychiatrists, but they do better than us, because of how their programmes are set up. So, not everybody who has a mental health concern is coming to see a psychiatrist.”

She explained that in other countries, general practitioners would deal with more common mental health conditions such as depression with psychiatrists being reserved for more serious cases like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

In Barbados, however, “we kind of run a top-heavy service where there is not the best use of personnel”, said Dr Sue.

“How things are set up now is not the best use of personnel. There are certain reasons for that I understand. But, no, I don’t think adding more psychiatrists will necessarily solve the issue, especially since the issues are social. I think we need more social support.”

She gave as an example the fact that when she started working at the Psychiatric Hospital, there were two halfway houses which no longer exist.

“Certain things went backward,” she said. “We had houses at one point in the community that were assigned for our patients; when they go into hospital and they come out, they could live in these houses. But bit by bit, because of how society is, relatives or whoever, eventually kicked the persons out of the houses. The houses were no longer there. All kinds of things happened… so, we had certain social things and we have gone and we have taken steps backward. We don’t have those social supports anymore. We don’t have group homes… because that was a kind of group home… halfway houses we don’t have those things anymore.”

She expressed concern that now, when patients who are ready to be discharged from the hospital, have nowhere to go because relatives don’t want them and there is nobody else to take them in.

Even where these people may have had a home, it may be dilapidated, she said.

“There is no easy solution to that,” Dr Sue declared.

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb

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Concerns about health and safety in Barbados’ schools should be managed internally through proactive committees before escalating to the Ministry of Education or unions, Deputy Chief Education Officer Julia Beckles said on Monday.

Addressing more than 130 educators at an awareness-building session for health and safety committee chairpersons at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, Beckles, the ministry’s senior official responsible for schools, suggested that many issues could—and should—be resolved at the school level through proactive, well-functioning health and safety committees.

Her comments come against the backdrop of last school year’s disruptions, when teachers at several schools walked off the job over environmental and safety concerns, prompting ministry intervention and temporary closures in some cases.

“Some are active, but we would like all of them to be active, and we would like them to be more active than they are,” she said. “We are hoping that we will be able to foster that culture of collaboration on safety, which will see matters of safety being dealt with at the level of the school before they have to be reported to the union or even to us, because in some cases there are matters that can be fixed once management and the health and safety committees work together to bring resolution.”

Beckles explained that, while all schools have established health and safety committees as required by law, not all are functioning at full capacity. “We can tell you that all schools have health and safety committees, and we are hoping that after today and some other interventions that we are going to put in place, that all of them, we will have 100 per cent excited and forging ahead, ensuring that we have that culture of collaboration as it relates to safety and disaster risk reduction.”

Citing an example raised during the session about rodents and droppings sightings, Beckles said these too could be managed at the school level through education and preventative action.

“Schools are in residential areas, and we know that sometimes the practices—we can’t control the practices of everyone—but certainly in terms of education, health and safety committees can speak to their members at schools to ensure that they are doing the right things as it relates to disposing of rubbish,” she said.

“Principals can have campaigns at schools to ensure that children are disposing of rubbish properly because obviously we have to starve the rodents out. If they feel that they can be fed, they’re going to come to those environments.”

Beckles added that when environmental challenges arise, “the principal can then, along with the health and safety committee, determine whether it is a situation where there is a breach and what measures can be put in place. They can collaborate on this, baiting can be done, and that would involve calling in the Ministry of the Environment and health personnel”.

The deputy chief education officer said the ministry recognised the need to do more to support school health and safety teams, especially as Barbados continues its ongoing education transformation efforts.

“We deemed it necessary that more be done to assist our schools’ health and safety teams, and certainly to ensure that our schools’ health and safety teams are up, running and being proactive,” Beckles said. “Part of the pillars on which this transformation rests is the objective of having school environments that are fit for purpose. We want to modernise our school environments, and part of that modernisation should always have a focus on health and safety.”

She told the participants that schools needed to be fit for purpose, especially as the ministry was rolling out its education reform programme.

As Barbados joins the rest of the region in observing Caribbean Safety Week this week, Beckles said the ministry viewed the timing as ideal to renew focus on creating a “culture of health and safety in schools.”

“We want you to go back and re-energise and mobilise your teams—not in any acrimonious way, not because you are there just looking for when something goes wrong. We want you to be there all the time,” she said.

Encouraging reflection, Beckles asked participants to consider: “When was the last time your health and safety team held a meeting that had nothing to do with any problem seen within the environment? When was the last time your health and safety team did a walk-through of your school’s environment?”

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Cancer patients and advocates are once again facing anguish and uncertainty as the launch of a new radiotherapy machine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has been postponed until the end of November, deepening concerns about life-saving care amid official silence.

Men’s Cancer Support Group Interim Coordinator Vincent Yearwood told Barbados TODAY the repeated postponements in commissioning a $10-million linear accelerator continue to cause hardship for patients in urgent need of treatment.

“I understand the hospital had said it would have been ready by mid-September,” Yearwood explained. “From the information that has reached us, it now seems they’re saying October, but they haven’t come and said anything to the public at all. So one still doesn’t know what the status of the machine is.

“As we speak, at least one of our members is in Trinidad currently receiving radiation treatment. So, in other words, the disappointment continues, and the QEH hasn’t said a word.”

The linear accelerator, which is used to deliver high-precision radiation therapy to cancer patients, was delivered to Barbados last year. But despite several assurances from health officials, it has yet to be installed and brought into use.

On Thursday, QEH spokesman Shane Sealy acknowledged that the machine’s full installation had been delayed once again owing to construction adjustments that had to be made.

“We’re hoping to have it up and running by the end of November,” Sealy told Barbados TODAY. “Everything in this project has to be precise. What held things up was that, following the civil works, we learned that the floor was out by two millimetres. That had to be corrected because the equipment can only work with exact measurements.”

Those adjustments have now been completed and installation of the accelerator is expected to take place between this month and next, according to Sealy.

“The corrections have been made, and the new accelerator is going to be installed shortly, now that the civil works have been completed. We’re looking to the end of November for it to go live,” he said.

Back in June, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw expressed frustration in Parliament that the life-saving equipment was still not operational, warning that lives were being lost as a result of the delay.

“We have people dying while waiting. This can’t continue,” Bradshaw declared during debate on a resolution to lease state land at Coverley for a new palliative care facility. “It cannot be that the equipment is sitting there and not being used while people are desperate for treatment. There has to be a sense of urgency.”

Bradshaw, a breast cancer survivor herself, described the matter as one of national importance and urged health authorities to accelerate the process of commissioning the machine.

“We have started the process,” she said. “We know where we want to go. Now we need to act. Lives are on the line.”

In response to Bradshaw’s concerns at the time, health minister Davidson Ishmael sought to assure MPs that the installation of the linear accelerator machine was finally nearing completion.

The minister told lawmakers he was “disheartened” by the fact that the ministry had not yet delivered on the commitment, but due to civil works delays, the project had faced some unfortunate challenges.

He insisted: “Any entity that has any radiation involved, there has to be a special purpose-built facility and space for its housing. Therefore, some of these civil works have taken inordinately long, but the team at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is working assiduously to ensure that we can get to the point where the civil works are completed.”

The minister said he had been informed that those civil works were due to be finished that week.

Back in January, the Barbados Cancer Society sounded the alarm on the increasing incidence of colon cancer in the country, attributing it largely to Barbadians’ diet.

The society’s president, Professor David Rosin, said: “Here in Barbados, the commonest cancer is still — despite it being half the population [men] — prostate cancer. There are, in fact, 320 new cases every year out of a population of 285 000 people. That is about 45 per cent of all cancers [reported locally]. It’s really something to worry about. The anxiety here is not only is it the commonest cancer, but it is also unfortunately more aggressive and occurring in younger men.”

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb

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The Queen Elizabeth Hospital has intensified its call for blood donations, warning that stocks are running low and that more donors are urgently needed to sustain essential emergency and surgical care.

Dr Christine Greenidge, chief operations officer, highlighted the importance of community support as she appeared on the hospital’s Pulse Radio Show.

“Blood is critical for the work that our doctors do in the Emergency Department and elsewhere in saving lives,” she said.

Trauma cases, including gunshot and stabbing wounds, often require large volumes of blood, making donations essential, she added.

She also made an urgent call for rare blood types, such as O negative and A negative, and commended recent donors who responded promptly to calls for these types.

“Recently, we made a call… we wanted those individuals that we have a relationship with to come in and give us that donation… and they did just that,” she said.

Several blood drives are scheduled across the island in October to boost national reserves.

Collection teams would be at Ross University on Friday and Saturday, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from October 13 to 16 and Bajan Sigmas on October 23.   

Donors can visit the QEH Blood Bank, located next to the Winston Scott Polyclinic, where staff, including manager Wendy Lord, are ready to assist, Dr Greenidge said.

Both whole blood and platelets are needed to meet patient demands.

“When we get to the level where our stock is not where it needs to be, the appeal that would go up… that’s a responsible thing that we must do to ensure those units are readily available,” she said. “If you know for a fact that you are in that rare blood group and you want to donate, feel free to head down to the blood bank.” (LG)

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The Ministry of Health and Wellness is awaiting a formal report from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to determine whether Barbados has achieved official verification for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Acting Permanent Secretary Wayne Webster confirmed that the recent PAHO assessment was conducted at the ministry’s request to independently evaluate Barbados’ readiness to meet the operational standards required for validation.

“The recent assessment conducted by PAHO was done at the invitation of the ministry,” Webster said. “The aim was to obtain independent verification of Barbados’ operational effectiveness in meeting EMTCT standards for HIV.

“The PAHO team conducted a robust assessment of the key elements of service through visits to health care facilities and laboratories, and reviewed data and surveillance systems that are used in the process of providing services to support EMTCT.

“The initial feedback is extremely encouraging. However, a formal report will be provided to the ministry in due course and, to that extent, the ministry cannot give a date for next steps.”

Asked why the process had taken several years to reach this stage, Webster said certification demands sustained, deliberate progress.

“Healthcare improvement is a continuous and very deliberate process at that, because it involves people’s lives,” he said.

If verified, Barbados would become the 12th Caribbean country to officially eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, joining Belize, Jamaica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, which received certification last year. The EMTCT verification process also covers efforts to prevent transmission of syphilis and hepatitis B from mother to child.

A PAHO delegation completed a pre-assessment last week, touring major health facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and polyclinics, to evaluate testing protocols, maternal care, and disease surveillance systems. Barbados is expected to receive accreditation by year-end. (SZB)

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Barbados is set to become the 12th Caribbean nation officially recognised for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by the end of 2025, following a pre-assessment by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) that found strong progress and commitment across the island’s health services.

The elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission — known as EMTCT —  includes stepped-up efforts to protect mothers and babies from syphilis and hepatitis B.

The certification, expected by year-end, follows similar declarations in Belize, Jamaica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines last year. Cuba blazed the trail a decade ago, as the world’s first, by simultaneously preventing the spread of both HIV and syphilis from mother to child.

A PAHO team, accompanied by a regional laboratory expert, joined a national health team to conduct a pre-assessment exercise from Tuesday to Friday last week, PAHO said in a release. The review mirrors an official EMTCT evaluation and aims to identify gaps and challenges before a formal certification mission.

During the visit, the PAHO delegation met senior health officials to outline objectives and share preliminary findings, the hemispheric health agency said. They toured health facilities — including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, polyclinics, and a private medical centre — to assess services for pregnant and lactating women, and inspected laboratories to ensure testing and diagnostics meet international standards.

The exercise allowed the teams to review HIV services, maternal and child clinics, vaccination and treatment programmes, and disease surveillance systems critical to preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B. They also offered recommendations to strengthen service delivery.

“Achieving EMTCT certification would be a national milestone for Barbados,” said Dr Amalia Del Riego, PAHO/WHO Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries.

“It demonstrates the strength of Barbados’ HIV services. It also shows the quality of public health services and especially maternal and child health (MCH) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services, and their commitment to ensure that every child has the healthiest start in life. The private health sector also plays a fundamental role in the health system and is an important pillar in achieving universal health coverage and sustainable development.

“For PAHO, the sum of all these services is critical to ensure health equity, strengthen health systems, and improve the population’s health. Providing support to Barbados in this elimination process is an important dimension for PAHO, aiming to ensuring no missed opportunities for prevention of diseases.”

Certification by the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirms that a country has robust systems to prevent HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B transmission from mother to child, and demonstrates the delivery of high-quality, accessible care for pregnant women and newborns.

(SZB)

The path to ending mother-to-child transmission

Eleven Caribbean countries have achieved PAHO/WHO international certification for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis as of 2024:

● Cuba: 2015 (first country in the world to achieve dual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis)

● Anguilla: 2017

● Antigua and Barbuda: 2017

● Bermuda: 2017

● Cayman Islands: 2017

● Montserrat:  2017

● St Kitts and Nevis: 2017

● Dominica: 2021

● Belize: 2024

● Jamaica: 2024

● St Vincent and the Grenadines: 2024

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It’s taking more than a decade to settle some personal injury claims in Barbados – and no single sector is shouldering the blame.

President of the Barbados Bar Association (BBA) Kaye Williams says the legal, medical and insurance systems are all contributing to the prolonged wait for justice, with some cases dragging on for over ten years.

“We are finding that personal injury matters are taking well over five years, I’d say even ten-plus years; that should not be happening,” she said. “We are waiting on too many things in order for the claimant’s matter to proceed.”

Williams was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop titled From Interview to Judgment: Winning Strategies in Personal Injury and Civil Practice, at Sandals Royal, where she stressed the financial and emotional toll of the delays.

“Potentially hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, are being tied up in the system because, for the insurance side, as well as for the legal side, claims are not being processed in a timely fashion,” she said.

One major bottleneck, she noted, is the time it takes for medical reports to be produced, a concern echoed by both the BBA and the General Insurance Association of Barbados (GIAB), who have been meeting with the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) to address the issue.

“We understand and appreciate that doctors are professionals who are burdened with a heavy schedule, but a client should not have to wait for years for a medical report,” Williams said.

GIAB President Andrea Walton agreed that collaboration is key to breaking the gridlock.

“We normally would work in isolation,” she said. “What we have found is that we now have to collaborate a bit more… to ensure that the medical reports that insurance companies receive are adequate for us making decisions to assist with settling personal injury claims.” (JB)

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