A shortage of specialized healthcare providers in Barbados and across the Caribbean continues to put the life of dozens of children with blood disorders at risk, the Canada-based SickKids Foundation has said as it scores success in its efforts to tackle the issue with local and regional partners.
On Wednesday, the medical charity provided an update on training more medics on childhood cancers and blood disorders here and in five other Caribbean states, while its partner, CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank, pledged further funding to the cause.
Through the foundation’s SickKids-Caribbean Initiative (SCI), which was launched in 2013 to enhance capacity for care in paediatric cancer and blood disorder, several nurses have been trained in five of the six participating countries in the areas of haematology/oncology, nursing and laboratory services.
Dr Chantelle Browne-Farmer, a paediatric haematologist/oncologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) who has benefitted from training in her speciality under the SCI, has expressed concern about some limitations in the healthcare system, which she said continued to put children at risk.
She said: “In the Caribbean, children with cancer and blood disorders are at a particular disadvantage because of limited access to healthcare, limited resources, limited professionals and just a shortage of frontline healthcare providers in general.
“This is why the SickKids-Caribbean Initiative is so crucial to the advancement of care for these children in the Caribbean.”
After returning in July from her three-year training and fellowship in Canada, Dr Browne-Farmer continues to work in the QEH paediatrics department, but is also now working with the only other trained pediatric haematologists and oncologists at the QEH.
“Now we have two, things will be so much better,” declared Dr Browne-Farmer. “There will be less gaps in terms of availability of persons to supervise the care for these children.”
Officials could not immediately provide data on the number of blood disorder cases seen in Barbados annually, but Dr Browne-Farmer said that just over ten cancer cases are seen each year.
She said three nurses have been trained in the SCI initiative and two of them were on the paediatric floor helping to care for cancer and blood disorders but said “we do need more trained nurses in this area”.
She added: “We do also need nurses in our outpatient setting because as we move forward a lot of paediatric haematology/oncology care [will be] outpatient for the most part.
“So we do at least need two to three nurses ideally to be able to handle the outpatient care.”
Associate Chief of Nursing at SickKids, Bonnie Fleming-Carol, also expressed concern about the shortfall of specialized healthcare providers.
“In the Caribbean, children with cancer or blood disorders are at particular disadvantage because of limited access to healthcare professionals with specialized training and a shortage of frontline health providers,” said Fleming-Carol.
But she said countries have started to feel the impact from training of nurses, which was introduced in 2016 under the SCI, adding that 13 more nurses from five of the six countries started training this month.
The countries taking part in the SCI are Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
Chief of Infectious Diseases at SickKids, Dr Upton Allen, outlined some of the achievements since the SCI was introduced six years ago, but warned that “our work is far from finished”.
Dr Allen said: “We have improved access to services for children in the Caribbean with cancers and serious blood disorders.
“We have increased the capacity of Caribbean partners to provide timely, accurate diagnosis and high-quality follow-up care.
“We have sought to strengthen the infrastructure that enhances the capacity to care for children with cancers and serious blood disorders, and facilitate robust knowledge exchange and new regional and global linkages.”
SCI has also installed seven telemedicine sites in the hospitals across the region, trained four haematology/oncology doctors, completed more than 450 cases consultations, and created several clinical care guidance documents and supporting documents that have been adopted for the local setting, he said.
Dr Allen continued: “We have completed more than 70,000 specialized diagnostic tests, registered more than 600 patients in custom-built local pediatric oncology databases, trained 27 nurses from five countries in the basic haematology-oncology Diploma programme at the University of the West Indies School of Nursing.”
CIBC FirstCaribbean announced that through its charitable arm – the FirstCaribbean International ComTrust Foundation – it was injecting another $2 million (US$1 million) into the SCI over the next five years.
This matched the amount the bank provided in 2013 over a seven-year period.
Ahead of signing the new memorandum of understanding, Director of Communication at CIBC FirstCaribbean, Debra King, said the new donation was “to provide additional support for specialized nursing training and research and advocacy over the next five years”.
The new funding makes CIBC the single largest donor to the SCI. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
