Published 31 October 2022
Basseterre
Buckie Got It St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Government Is Fulfilling Its Pledge to Provide High-Level Healthcare Service And Affordable Health Insurance To The Federation
Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis, October 31, 2022: Medical professionals at the Joseph N. France
General Hospital, Pogson, and Mary Charles Hospitals, will be undergoing a series of training
conducted by CPR Solutions, a national training center for the American Heart Association.
CPR Solutions has an extensive network of certified instructors from across the United States, who
offer a comprehensive range of CPR training classes for medical professionals and other healthcare
workers.
The training will be facilitated as a collaborative effort between Ross University, coordinated by Dr.
Aljay Pierre (Director of Health Services at Ross University), and the Ministry of Health. It is
scheduled to take place from Wednesday 3rd November to Monday 7thNovember 2022.
Approximately two hundred (200) health care workers, which includes 50 medical doctors, will be
trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Basic Life Support (BLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life
Support (PALS).
According to Dr. Jenson Morton, Director of Health Institutions, this is in keeping with the Prime
Minister, Hon. Dr. Terrance Drew’s pledge to improve the quality of health care throughout the
Federation.
“It is being done in an effort to improve the quality of health care that is being delivered by
the staff of not just the JNF General Hospital but the staff in the Ministry of Health in
general. The goal is to ensure that these staff members get certified in BLS/ACLS/PALS and
they renew this certification every two years. All of this is a part of our attempt to get our
medical institutions properly accredited. “
For the JNF General Hospital to gain accreditation, members of staff must be fully trained and up to
standard with their ability to offer basic life support, advanced cardiac life support, and pediatric life
support.
Basic Life Support training ensures that participants can promptly recognize several life-threatening
emergencies, give high-quality chest compressions, deliver appropriate ventilations, and provide
early use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
Pediatric Life Support is geared towards healthcare providers who respond to emergencies in infants
and children, and for personnel in emergency response, emergency medicine, intensive care and
critical care units.
Advanced Cardiac Life Support is a set of life-saving protocols and skills that extend beyond Basic Life
Support (BLS) used to provide urgent treatment to cardiac emergencies such as cardiac arrest,
stroke, myocardial infarction, and other conditions.
Dr. Morton stated that this training is only one of the many efforts being implemented to improve
the quality of health care throughout the nation.
There are several other initiatives that will be undertaken by the Ministry of Health in the upcoming
months including Customer Service Training and other specialization training for the nurses.
The Ministry of Health is also expected “to revamp its entire financial scheme and system, a part of
which includes the National Health Insurance scheme. Other changes include the transformation of
the administrative structure of the hospital, the outfitting of the peripheral hospitals, [Pogson and
Mary Charles] with permanent medical staff as well as other improvements including small
laboratories and small Xray facilities which will come onstream bit by bit”.
The Cabinet of Ministers has already begun discussions on the National Health Insurance preliminary
report with the aim of making it a reality for the Citizens of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. A
comprehensive document was presented by the Minister responsible, The Honourable Dr. Geoffrey
Hanley, outlining the work done and action plan to date. The presentation included the National
Commission on Universal Health Care Plan of Action, financing options for the Introduction of the
National Health Care to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, and the draft Legislation of the National
Health Insurance Act.
