Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Friday commissioned a $30 million health centre at Bamia, Soesdyke-Linden High-way.
According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) report, Anthony told the health workers at Bamia that the facility would better provide primary healthcare for the area.
While noting that primary healthcare is the backbone of the healthcare system, he said, “You can do a lot of preventative work at the primary care level, and if we are very effective at the primary care level, it prevents a lot of complications and would prevent a lot of diseases from going upwards in the chain. So, what you do here is extremely important and therefore, we want to work with you, want to facilitate you to ensure that you can do your jobs better.”
Anthony acknowledged that a major challenge during the current COVID-19 pandemic has been a slowdown in the national vaccination programme and he, therefore, called on primary healthcare workers to restart the exercise.
“We want you to speed up or accelerate that process so that we keep those high numbers that we always get when we do our immunization programme for the children. So, we’ll work along with you, the services that you offer here whether it’s antenatal, postnatal, other primary care services, we’ll see how we can collaborate with you to make that better,” he was quoted as saying.
The report said Anthony also encouraged the healthcare workers to capitalise on the training opportunities the government is offering to improve and expand their skillsets.
The new Bamia Phase Three Health Centre caters to about 1,500 residents. It is expected to serve neighbouring Bamia Drive, Phase Two and Three Amelia’s Ward and Bamia Highway. Bamia is located about half-a-mile from Amelia’s Ward.
Permanent Secretary Malcolm Watkins, Chief Medical Officer Dr Narine Singh, Region Ten Health Officer Gregory Harris, Regional Chairman Deron Adams, Regional Executive Officer Dwight John and other regional health officials also attended the commissioning, the report said.
