By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 20th February 2025) – Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Curtis Martin has underscored the government’s commitment to improving customer service at the Joseph N. France (JNF) General Hospital.
Speaking on the weekly ‘In Focus’ programme aired live on Wednesday 19th February 2025, produced by the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service (SKNIS), he highlighted ongoing efforts to enhance patient care and service delivery within the healthcare system while interacting with host Ian Richards.
He acknowledged the critical role played by healthcare workers and the necessity for structural reforms.
“First of all, allow me to express my thanks, my fervent thanks to the staff of the Ministry of Health who come out every day to bat in defense of providing healthcare service to our people. They make tremendous sacrifices, and I want to compliment them highly,” Martin said.
As understood, one of the primary areas of reform has been customer service at JNF General Hospital. Martin emphasized the shift towards a patient-centered approach, ensuring that individuals not only receive medical care but also have a positive experience.
“And then this is really about customer service, patient service-and it’s not even patient service but patient service experience because service is outward looking, experience is inward looking. And we want to make sure that when people walk away that they can in fact say that they would have had a good experience,” he explained.
“We see about 29,000 people at JNF annually. So that tells you the foot traffic and the footprints. The JNF has a lot of good stories despite now again you’re going to hear some negative news and elsewhere we can tell that there are a lot of good stories and we have very good competent people. Anytime we bring in experts and specialists to look at our healthcare services, one of the things I always say is you have some competent staff. So there’s no shortage of talent in the Ministry of Health,” Martin stated.
He explained that his mandate, as directed by Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Dr. Terrance Drew, was to stabilize the ministry’s finances, human resources, and operations while initiating a transformation process.
“…And so we had to focus on building some resilience and the ability to maintain essential services in the face of inevitable shocks such as hurricane economic downturns and the surge demand for services in terms of epidemics and mass casualties…” he stated.
Director of Health Institutions Dr. Jenson Morton acknowledged that customer service has historically been an area requiring significant improvement. He credited Mr. Martin’s human resources expertise for making a difference in this regard.
“With Mr. Martin, his background in human resources and customer, it’s actually very good because that was one of the areas that we needed some strong assistance within health.”
He elaborated on how simple interactions, such as how a doctor or nurse communicates with a patient, can influence public perception.
“If it’s one area that we used to get a lot of licks for, it was just aspects of customer service, things like answering a phone, speaking with someone, how you put your face, the words that you use. You’d be surprised the amount of times up in the hospital when the doctor or the nurse they did nothing wrong like what they did; the advice they gave was absolutely perfect and sometimes it’s the tone, it’s the way in which it was said.”
One example he highlighted was how patients seeking a basic service, such as a blood pressure check, are advised to visit a health center instead of the emergency room.
“You have to be very careful with how you say it because the person can take away from that: ‘You’re running them.’ Like, ‘I went to the hospital, and they run me. They don’t even want to do this.’ But you have to go the extra mile, you have to explain to them and say, ‘We are very busy right now. If you choose to stay, it’s going to take quite some time, but you’ll get seen much faster if you go to the health center. They can give you all of the help you need.’”
Dr. Morton credited Mr. Martin for personally ensuring that all staff understand the importance of quality service.
“Mr. Martin in particular he has been going through all of the parts of the staff to make sure that everyone understands the importance of service and the quality of service and that bridged a major gap and it’s already being felt because the general public, those that choose to be honest, sometimes people cling to the negative, but those that choose to be honest, they’re already admitting that the quality of service that they’ve been getting has been increasing. That’s one thing.”
According to him, the leadership team at the Ministry of Health has adopted a collaborative approach to decision-making, with weekly meetings ensuring smooth communication.
“As a leadership team in health, because it’s multiple persons and it’s so big, we come together every single week, we meet every single week, all of the important information is exchanged simply because we are scattered in so many different areas.”
He credited Mr. Martin’s leadership for maintaining these regular discussions.
“And Mr. Martin being the one at the helm, it helps. Because I would be honest, if it were up to us, we would always claim that we are too busy. But Mr. Martin is the one that insists every single week, no matter what…unless, if something’s super major.”