HSA shares vision for improved, expanded service

In the first of a new series of Cayman Islands Health Services Authority’s quarterly media briefings five HSA panelists, CEO Lizzette Yearwood, Deputy CEO Ronnie Dunn, Medical Director Dr. Delroy Jefferson, HSA Board Chairman Osbourne Bodden, and Medical Officer of Health Dr. Samuel Williams-Rodriguez, described major new developments aimed at improving patient care and accessibility to existing services, as well as increasing the spectrum of services available.

The new developments include a new Dialysis Centre for West Bay, the relocation and expansion of the services at Smith Road Medical Centre, a Bodden Town EMS station, a new molecular biology department, an Adolescent Mental Health Hub and a brand new Women and children’s Health Centre.

Mr Bodden began by giving a strategic overview of the HSA’s plans and objectives. There would be ‘significant investment,’ in infrastructure, he said, to ensure the establishment of a health system that ‘delivers right care at the right place and the right time,” while improving both patient and staff experience. The expansion of new services, as well as increases in efficiency coincide with the development of new facilities at Smith Road, Bay Town, and The Financial Centre. There would also be improvements to facilitate customer feedback, and response, Mr. Bodden said.

There would be a new Women and children’s health centre, with expanded pediatric services and a significant expansion of new children-focused services, with a dedicated team to take care of children.

A Partnership between the HSA, the Alex Panton Foundation, and the Ministry of Health has resulted in a new Adolescent’s mental health hub, slated to open in July. Some of HAS’s new improvements relate to redeployment of existing resources, for example, the 24-hour flu hotline will be rebranded to include questions and concerns over a range of generic medical issues, and where customers can find help when they need it.

As a result of new investment in equipment and services, many of the gaps in healthcare that had left many local people with no alternative but to seek treatment overseas, would now be filled so that people no longer have to go off-island for their care. Also, there would also be more specialist services available, including new resources for offering complimentary medicine, for those who prefer to seek natural remedies. There would also be improvements in areas such as speech therapy and occupational therapy. As well as new services, improvements in efficiency should lead to greatly reduced waiting times. There would be a new sports medicine clinic, so that Cayman’s sportspeople could better find the help they needed to restore them and let them get back to the sports they love.

A & E is currently concluding first phase of an expansion, with six new beds and an additional two new bays, and additional ambulance facilities in Bodden Town. In addition to emergency services, a ‘walk-in’ Urgent Care facility will offer immediate care for patients who perhaps don’t fit into the traditional category of an ‘emergency,’ but nevertheless have a condition that greatly concerns them. There will also be a new molecular biology facility, the first of its kind in the Cayman Islands, so that important work in relation to analysis of various kinds of cancer can be carried out via genomic sequencing studies.