By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts- (JANUARY 2018): Dubbed ‘Doctors In The House: A Conversation On Health’, the St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Branch of Constituency Two (Central Basseterre), earlier this week hosted a health seminar which focused largely on the aspect of preventative measures.
The event was conducted on Monday 22nd January at the Old Girls School located on Victoria Road.
The presenters were: Heart Specialist Dr. Caroline Lawrence; Internal Medicine Specialist Dr. Terrance Drew; Pediatrician and former Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Martin; recent graduate UWI Mona Dr. Cuthbert Sebastian Jr. and General Practitioner Dr. Garfield Alexander.
Collectively, the types of diseases talked about at that medical session included cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, erectile dysfunction and high blood pressure.
Members of the public also learnt how to reduce health costs and individuals interested in pursuing medical studies got tips and advice from the graduate medical student.
Speaking to the Parliamentary Representative of the area, Marcella Liburd, following the event, she outlined the reasoning behind it.
“I used to be a minister of health so I know about some of the health issues and I’m seeing a deterioration in the quality and delivery of the health service not in terms of the workers – I think the workers are doing their very best in terms of what they have to work with- and so I thought that we should try and see how to put on something like this to help people to be more conscious of their health and focus on prevention because once it gets passed that it’s costly not only in terms of finances but in terms of human suffering so that is what really motivated us to do it and I’m so happy that the it turned out to be a successful event.”
Liburd informed that the Branch is hoping to continue the health seminars once per quarter each year.
According to her, different areas would be concentrated on going forward.
“Tonight, we focused on prevention because that is the most important area that people should be focusing on,” she noted.