More ambulances on the way, says Minister of Health and Wellness

The Emergency Ambulance Service will soon be adding more vehicles to its fleet, and the decision to decentralise operations by stationing a unit at the Arch Hall Fire Station in St Thomas has proven to be a successful one.

This was disclosed during debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2022, in the House of Assembly on Wednesday.

It was Minister of Health and Wellness Ian Gooding-Edghill who said more ambulances were coming on stream shortly.

“We have just purchased one, then the Maria Holder Trust is donating another and we have vowed to match that. Then we are replacing one that got written off in a recent accident once the insurance proceeds from that come through,” he said.

In response to queries from Member of Parliament for St Peter, Colin Jordan, the Director of Support Services at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Louise Bobb said the Arch Hall Fire Station had proven very useful.

“The Emergency Ambulance Service is set up so that we could reach any patient within the golden hour when they would need the most urgent response, and we decentralised it and put the unit at Arch Hall so we could get to patients living in the north of Barbados faster. Every day, we get a matrix of data informing us as to how the service has been responding to calls. Ideally, we try to reach people within 45 minutes the most, and having the unit at Arch Hall has enabled us to do so,” she said.

Jordan also had questions regarding the budget for supplies and operating expenses at the Maurice Byer Polyclinic in his constituency, noting that the utilities budget had gone from $135,000 to $206,000, and supplies had increased from $168,000 to over $200,000.

“If we are spending over $200,000 but only getting $135,000, we would have to ask for a supplementary later on, or end up with a deficit going into the next financial year, so this is our way of trying to avoid that,” explained Minister Gooding-Edghill.

“Also, supplies were under-budgeted before and we will need more supplies to enhance our service delivery, and also we have found the prices of those items have gone up.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Arthur Phillips explained that the ministry’s Health Promotion Unit is continuing to work with a variety of organisations across the island to promote health and wellness.

“The Health Promotion Unit has a document governing how we can engage faith-based organisations in health promotion. We have partnerships with the associations dealing with cancer and diabetes and heart disease, and we want to engage as many organisations as possible in both the private and public sector to spread the message of better health across the island,” Dr Phillips said. (DH)