THE Victoria Hospital held a special handing-over ceremony to thank the government and people of Japan for providing timely, life-saving medical equipment valued at over US$80,000 to the hospital.
Twelve multi-parameter monitors, two incubators and three infant resuscitators were donated to the Victoria Hospital by the Japanese government under their Gant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project.
Biomedical Engineer at the Victoria Hospital, Jessie Theobalds, said all equipment has been installed and the clinicians are absolutely pleased with the various devices.
The biomed engineer explained, āWe had such needs within the nursery department, the neonatal department and the accident and emergency department in that we did not have enough monitors or devices, machines to actually provide the quality healthcare that is necessary for a flagship hospital on the island.
āOur clinicians were essentially working miracles, magic to actually get things done on an efficient basis, on a daily basis. So we have deep gratitude for the assistance we got.
āWe heard that it was US$80,000-plus dollars that actually allocated for the purchase of these devices and I will tell you from the day they were installed and issued to the various departments — they have been used in some departments like A&E, the emergency room and also in the nursery — theyāre very grateful for these pieces of equipment.
āThey have been using these pieces of equipment daily.ā
While expressing her gratitude to the Japanese Government, Minister for Health and Wellness Mary Isaac highlighted the importance of this donation to the people of St. Lucia.
She said (to the donors) āYou may not realize how important this is to us and how essential it is to our health care system, but in a lot of cases we did not have some of these pieces of equipment which we need to carry out our daily operations at Victoria Hospital.ā
Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Japan, Yoshinori Yakabe was taken on a tour of Victoria Hospital to witness the equipment in operation within the various departments.
While on tour, one parent in the pediatric department expressed personal thanks to the Counsellor on behalf of his child, who was hooked-up to one of the devices.
The Deputy Head of Mission stated that apart from the health sector, his government has contributed to several other sectors in St. Lucia.
He was also very pleased that the equipment was being fully utilized within the hospital.
According to the Japanese official, āI wish to express my gratitude to Victoria Hospital and the Minister of Health and Wellness for taking the time to organize this important ceremony today and express my hope for continued display of cooperation and camaraderie between Japan and St. Lucia in the future.ā
The handing over ceremony was held on Friday (July 6).