 Hello, I'm Delia Delore, welcome to the programme. When it comes to national healthcare, whose responsibility is it to inform you of the health services you are entitled to? The Ministry of Health and Wellness, yes, but you too have a responsibility to be aware of and to ask questions about the quality of healthcare and services that are provided. Stay with me as we bring you a series of programmes where I talk to doctors and nurses and personnel at the Ministry of Health and Wellness. I inform you about the services and achievements in St Lucia's healthcare and tell you about future improvements. I'll ask you questions, give you their answers immediately so you know where to go to if anyone you know needs to go for healthcare. This programme also reaches interviews in Creole. Now let's access healthcare together. Coming up, the Chief Medical Officer explains her role and the improvements in the health service, how awareness of health services and early visits provides peace of mind, how vital family and friend support is to AIDS and HIV sufferers, why the quality of healthcare is important, and we tell you about free diabetic retinopathy screening. But first, did you know that waiting times can be shorter if you visit it in the afternoon? You can even make an appointment at some health centres. Every video in this series discusses some of the preconceptions of the National Health Service and to give you the facts of the matter. If you attend a sexual and reproductive health clinic which is not an HIV clinic, no one will know what you're there for unless you tell them. St Lucia has many trained health professionals who have been trained in St Lucia and worldwide. We answer the other perceptions later, so keep watching. I'm with Ms Paula James and Ms Shirley Bissette in Dennery and I have one question to ask them both and the question is, do you know which hospitals and wellness centres or polyclinics that you could attend when you're in St Lucia? Yes, I can go to the St Jude Hospital, I can go to the Victoria Hospital and into the Dennery Hospital as well. Well, as Paula said, there is Victoria Hospital, there is St Jude which is my favourite hospital to go to and there is Dennery Hospital which is now a polyclinic but there are other polyclinics. For example, they talk about the Babonu polyclinic, there is the Gosele polyclinic and now there is the EU which I guess it's not fully in use but people go there too. You've both left out one hospital which is very close to you. Think of it, the St Jude Hospital. Yeah, that's right. But are you aware that you could go to any of the wellness centres in St Lucia? So you don't have to, because you're in Dennery, you don't have to just go to the Dennery centre, you can go to anyone. Were you aware of that? Yes, I was aware of that. I am aware of that but for closeness you would go to the one which is closest to you. Were you both aware that the Dennery Hospital Ambulance Service is the fastest attending service in St Lucia? Really, I didn't know that. Wow. I was not aware and now you've told me, so I know now. Well, thank you both so much. You can contact us at the end of the programme and if there's anything at all that you need to know about St Lucia's services and the achievements of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, you can contact us there. Seeing this medical professional many times informing the nation, particularly when there are areas of concern and when there are new health developments, I met St Lucia's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Merlin Fredridge-James at the Literary Health Centre where I asked her about her own office CMO and some of the improvements in St Lucia's services. The Chief Medical Officer is like the main technical health adviser within the Ministry of Health with responsibility for management of programmes and policy and programme development and many other aspects. But one of the key roles of the Chief Medical Officer is with regards to the health of the public, what we call public health. And there is a particular law, the Public Health Act, that speaks to various components of public health. Looking at communicable diseases, infectious diseases, looking at vaccine preventable diseases, water and wastewater issues. It covers a multiplicity of things. So the Chief Medical Officer is like the main technical officer with responsibility for improving the health of the public. What are the key issues surrounding health care that the public should be aware of? I think the public would be very aware when we are having infectious disease epidemics because they are obvious. Usually, many persons are getting ill at the same time. So it's very visible. So when we're having infectious disease epidemics like the flu or the dengue, the chikungonia zika, I think the public is very aware of that. But persons also need to be aware and I think most persons are aware of the fact that the main killers, the main causes of death and disability in St. Lucia are actually the non-communicable diseases. So these are the most silent diseases, hypertension, diabetes, heart and lung disease. So these are actually the major causes of illness in St. Lucia. So the public need to be aware of that. So yes, we need to take necessary precautions and we know when it comes to mosquito prevention what it is that we need to do, what we need to do to protect ourselves from infectious diseases. But we also need to keep in mind that the non-communicable diseases, lifestyle-related diseases, hypertension, diabetes, these are very serious diseases and actually the main causes of death and problems in our health care in St. Lucia. What are the recent improvements and achievements of St. Lucia's health service? Well, I think there are many when it comes to improvements and perhaps as a Ministry of Health we don't speak enough and showcase enough in terms of what we do and what we provide. And so when it comes to recent improvements, I would look at some of our core aspects. So we look at mother and child health what we call maternal and child health care. We know that we had an audit some time ago looking at the maternal mother and child health care system with the intention of reducing the numbers of babies who die or who are born with complications. So we call it perinatal mortality reduction. So that has been a major thrust of ours. So when we did the audits, certain gaps were highlighted and we have attempted to address this with increased training, with procurement of equipment necessary to monitor the pregnant woman to resuscitate the newborn and we believe that our statistics are improving. In time it will show the impact but definitely we're moving towards there. We've also had some, may recall that we had a schistosomiasis or bilazia survey quite recently. And this is a very important aspect for St Lucia because St Lucia is one of the few countries, probably in the Caribbean, that still have schistosomiasis or bilazia, although it is at very, very low levels. So it is not a major epidemic but it's still endemic. We still usually every year pick up one or two adults who have the disease. So we had the survey among school age children and we surveyed over a thousand children and found that none of them were actually carrying the disease so this is a big win for St Lucia. Of course it would be good to repeat the survey and maybe have a wider sample but I think we can say at this point that we have practically eliminated schistosomiasis or bilazia in the younger age population. I have a question for you now with the answer provided right afterwards. Then settle in for the Creole segment with the now next week. How many of these services are improvements in St Lucia's healthcare? A, maternal and child healthcare? B, perinatal mortality reduction? C, training and equipment? Four, schistosomiasis or bilazia known as flatworms? All of these services are available in St Lucia. The Ministry of Health has worked very hard for six weeks to provide public health information about the health services that are needed and also to develop new health services. One of the officers that I don't know is the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Melinda Fredericks-James. He talked about the progress and achievements that I have done, and he has come to public health services. This is where I have done a lot of work, to come to public health services. Maybe people who have changed for a long time, like T-baby, the older the baby is, the more sick it is. The older the patient is, the more sick it is. The more sick it is, the more sick it is, the more sick it is. But unfortunately, we have a program that manages women who are sick, and manages T-baby who just passed away. He has been sick for this incident with T-baby and the women who are sick. We have a maternal mortality and perinatal mortality, so it's a jadison. We are still going to make the baby better, except for that, in the past, we had a perinatal audit that we had to keep in every way, every thing we did for T-baby. After the audit, we saw that the nurses, the doctors, had more access to the way to manage T-baby, T-baby who had a problem with what they had just done. We also had more equipment to keep the women who were sick who had just passed away. So we had to keep in every way. Before, we had to keep in every way, such as measles, such as diphtheria, so that we could get sick. But when we get the vaccine, if we don't get the vaccine, we can't keep the women who are sick. So we had to keep in every way. Dr. Malin-Fedricks-James was appointed to the Commission by the Circuit and was able to manage the situation. I think that the epidemic is very important. The epidemic is very important for the women who are sick, who have a big flu. We have a big flu influenza. The epidemic is very important because the epidemic is very important for the women who are sick, As you can see, there is no one to talk about it. And we know what we have to do to prevent migraines from emerging and to prevent other diseases from happening. But the disease that has affected us the most in this area, especially in this area, is the one that has caused non-communicable diseases. This disease can be a disease that causes pressure, stress, and a lot of stress. This is a problem that causes migraines. And we know that migraines are the way we live, the way we eat, what we eat. If we don't have enough exercise, if we don't drink alcohol, we can't eat tobacco and all these things will affect us. So, we don't have to travel to the city to get rid of these diseases. We don't have to go to the city to get rid of these infectious diseases. But we have to get rid of these non-communicable diseases, NCDs, pizza dough, pressure. We don't have to travel to the city to get rid of these diseases. We have to get rid of these non-communicable diseases, and we don't have to travel to the city to get rid of these diseases. When we are very tired, we have to get rid of these diseases. This disease can be a disease that causes a lot of stress. It can also be a disease that causes problems. We don't have to travel to the city to get rid of these diseases. after our bodies, what we eat, how much we eat, how we recognize symptoms of diseases, knowing where to go to for treatment and also knowing the services our healthcare provides. You and I have a responsibility to be knowledgeable and to practice a healthy lifestyle as much as possible. Prevention is better than cure. Did you know that one in eight people have died from non-communicable chronic diseases known as NCDs in St. Lucia? So, what is an NCD? And what services does St. Lucia's non-communicable chronic diseases unit provide? Non-communicable chronic diseases, as the name suggests, would be non-communicable, of course, means that you would not be able to catch it from somebody else or that it's not contagious. And chronic means that it is long-lasting, so non-communicable chronic diseases tend to be incurable diseases. They can be treated and controlled, but not cured. In terms of services, the non-communicable chronic disease department or the NCD department, it actually encompasses various departments for want of a better word. And we're looking at community nursing, the nutrition department, Bureau of Health Education, epidemiology, and what we do basically is to coordinate activities to get towards raising awareness of major NCDs and their risk factors, such as cancer, high blood pressure diabetes. We also look at data collection for NCDs and their risk factors. So we look at things like prevalence of particular diseases like diabetes, cancer, and we're actually in the process of implementing a country-wide survey which will look at the major risk factors for diseases like diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure. And we're very excited about that because that, of course, will give us information that we could use to look at improving our health system and improving policies to get towards decreasing the prevalence of risk factors in those diseases. We look at improved prevention of NCDs as an NCD department. We do a lot of education of our population. We look at policies which can protect our population, especially when we're looking at the more vulnerable groups, such as children. So some of the things we're working on are policies that have to do with smoke-free spaces. So persons are protected from tobacco smoke, breastfeeding in infancy, which is getting towards improving the childhood obesity. And we're also looking at trying to get sodas out of the schools, what we call sugar-sweetened beverages, trying to decrease access of the school to the school students. We're also looking at, in terms of control of NCDs, one of the projects we're actually looking at right now is a project called HEARTS. And we are actually looking in the health centers, in our primary care facilities, and we are putting things in place to improve blood pressure control in our population of patients who is actually hypertensive. And that is getting towards decreasing strokes and heart attacks in that population. So we're doing quite well. The Non-Communicable Chronic Disease Unit works with other departments to raise awareness on how to treat cancer, diabetes, and other NCDs. True or false? True. Non-Communicable chronic diseases, NCDs, that affect the patient's health. And also for the health reasons, the Ministry of Health, who is also looking at treating the patients with the same treatment, is also looking at treating the patients with the same treatment. But the official medical officer for Non-Communicable Chronic Diseases, Dr. Cheryl Philbuth, speaks to the Ministry of Health to bring the patients to the hospital. Non-Communicable diseases, NCDs, that are not available in the world, but we are joining them. It's been a while since the last time I spoke to you. Well, our department is looking at patients who know how to treat cancer. And we have about eight or ten people who are suffering from cancer here. That's what we're doing. We're talking about women, about mothers. And our department is doing quite well. We're working with everyone in the department. We're working with the nurses. We're working with people who speak about education. We're working with people who have a formality. We're working with people who are watching and telling people who know how to eat. We're working together. Well, our department is working together. We're working with people who know how to do it. To know how to treat cancer. Who know how to treat cancer. I don't know how to talk about cancer, pressure, or what to do. I don't know how to share information because I don't know what to do. I don't know. I don't have any information. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. But I don't know information for those who need it. So, the minister has to look at this information to see how the people who have done these whisks, who have taken care of these diseases. We also have to look at these mothers, in the department, to see how they can protect the mother from the disease. We also have to look at these mothers to see how they can protect the mother from the disease. We have to look at these mothers to see how they can prevent the disease from spreading. So, we have to look at these mothers to see how they can eat well. So, the department has to look at these drinking glasses, to see how the mother is doing, to see how the health center is doing and to see how doctors there are coming, and perform the treatment in the health center. So, this is very important for the health center to know that this 100 company models have been developed in health centers. We are not able to properly maintain these healthcare centers. So sejoa no kagade ba yo kakui e hak sebe che no kagade kumane no sa poteje che pepset lisikijani presha kumane no sa fe semon sa e deyo ni presha yo plimee puyo pa juena stroke puyo pa juena maladi che kote yo ka mo sibit. So chute sebae sa no ka fe pu no e de pepset. Attending a sexual and reproductive clinic or an HIV clinic can make us feel scared and nervous and issues of stigma and confidentiality often prevent us from visiting clinics. But it's our health and to live longer we must take steps to educate ourselves and to face our fears so that we don't have to let the stigma hamper us. Our ultimate care should be about living longer so we must make efforts to be informed and receive all the help we can get. Support from family and friends also helps when we are faced with an infectious disease. The Infections Diseases Unit has responsibility for three main programs related to tuberculosis, HIV and sexually transmitted infections and Hansen's disease. And for persons who don't know what Hansen's disease is, we're talking about leprosy. In terms of achievements, one of the big achievements we have made is with regard to our sexually transmitted infection. We have integrated sexual and reproductive health clinics. We have one in the north at the Victoria Hospital. It's a community clinic and we also have one in the south at the Viewport Health Centre. The one at VH really became integrated as of March 2017 and I'm happy to say as of January 2019 we achieved the one at the Viewport Health Centre. So at Viewport Health Centre we went from a once a month clinic plus a once a week clinic to an integrated once a week clinic. And with regard to sexual and reproductive health we offer services to persons who are not only locals but also non-nationals. We offer confidential, non-discriminatory services and we have things like testing for sexually transmitted infections including syphilis, HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C. We have treatment for HIV. In terms of clinical management of HIV we do all testing of blood as routinely required or collection is done at the clinic. Medications are collected at various pharmacy points and in terms of collection of medications we usually inform clients when we are treating them where they can collect their medications from. In terms of TB while we do not treat for TB tuberculosis at the clinic we try to test at least persons living with HIV for TB. The unit itself is trying to bring TB out on the map. So in the show it's a low incidence country for TB however we are working with the goal that we want to end TB which is a World Health Organization strategy, the end TB strategy. So the goal is to end TB by 2035 so we are working along those lines. So in terms of our services we do not discuss a patient's details whether a patient has a disease or not and I say a disease with reference to TB leprosy which is Hansen's disease, HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea. Ethically as medical professionals we are all bound by an oath for confidentiality. So and legally we are not supposed to discuss a patient's details. So from my perspective personally having worked on the unit and from the perspective of the personnel I have worked with the idea is that we maintain a client's confidentiality and there would be repercussions if that confidentiality is breached and we actually find a professional who has breached confidentiality. The sexual and reproductive health clinic is an HIV clinic, yes or no. Other ministries certainly learning your unit infectious diseases. We are also working on three programs that are related to TB, HIV and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Epileprosy. One of them is the sexual and reproductive apnea clinic. The other one is the lopital victoria. The other one is the sexually transmitted infections or HIV syphilis hepatitis BXC. The other one is the joint treatment for moon and HIV and the moon that is HIV is a phallic for tuberculosis. Met official medical for unit infectious diseases, Dr. Gilcajaro, is confident about the information Moon has visited a clinic sexual and reproductive. It is said that Dr. Ebernos has discussed the quality of the information of his Moon even if it is not related to panion. Sousadino, Cromer Clinic Sexual and Reproductive, known as Ceclicy. A, 4, B, 6, C, Yon, D, D. We have a C-D, Yon-A-Soud and Yon-A-Nord. Laboratories are the homes of medical discoveries. They assist in diagnosing disease mostly through analysis of tissue, cell and body-fluent samples. I asked consultant pathologist Dr. Wayne Felicien what are some of the services the Ezra Long Laboratory provides. The Ezra Long Laboratory at Victoria Hospital provides two different types of services, clinical laboratory services and pathological laboratory services. The clinical involves testing different types of blood samples, tissue samples and pathological involves postmortems. It involves surgical biopsies where persons go to surgery. They remove certain body parts and then we look at it under the microscope and try to tell them whether it may or may not be cancerous. Some of the services would include the chemistry or immunology section, the serology where we test HIV and other STIs. We also do microbiology where we test for bacteria. We test for some viral strains, especially with these cases of the flu coming on H1N1 that are around. Also we test for stools, parasites. We also have a blood bank service which collects blood which we need especially with the increase in violence and different pathological entities which require donation of blood and blood transfusions. We also have the hematology department as well where we check to see if people have high or low blood counts as well. What are the improvements and achievements within the lab? One of the improvements I think we've done is trying to implement an environment that is open with communication. We've tried to change the culture in where it is more customer oriented service as opposed to just machinery operated. We're just doing tests. We try to deliver a service that the customer can be confident in. We've also tried to change the different equipment that we're trying to do so that they're more robust and they're willing to stand to. We have equipment that has probably outlived its time and now getting new equipment would be able to help our what we call our turnaround time. In terms of delivering results, we wouldn't want the result in two to three weeks or months. At the Israel Long Laboratory, you will experience A. No communication. B. Improved turnaround time. The answer is B. Patients experience short-awaiting periods at the Israel Long Laboratory. The Ministry of Health and Welfare is responsible for the support of the laboratory. This is the place where you can do medical research and assist the doctors to discover different diseases in the world. One of the goals of the B. Class is the Israel Long Laboratory. It is for the doctors to be able to provide the best service for the employees of the company. The B. Class takes a lot of time to talk about health services because the B. Class is on the side of everything that the examiner has done. And the doctors don't have to do that. The examiner doesn't have to do that. You have to be able to do the B. Class. You have to be able to do the tests to see if you can do that. And we have to do all of that. We can do it in public, in doctors. And everyone can trust in the B. Class. And we have to do the tests. We can do it in the B. Class. Every time we do it. We can do it in the B. Class. And we have to do it in the B. Class. And we have to make sure that the B. Class is able to do that. That the B. Class will do well in the B. Class. But we have to be able to do the tests. The B. Class will do that. All of these are not the best for the work. And we have to be able to do the tests. And it is completely up to the doctors. I never talked to anyone who wanted to come to Tesla, to the doctor, and to everyone who did the job. I never talked to anyone who wanted to change. I never visited Tesla. I never bought the equipment that I needed to make Tesla. I never bought the equipment that I needed to make Tesla. And then I went to the doctor to help me with my diagnosis. If you want to go to the lab, you can join the first service. A. Yes. B. No. And then, yes. The quality of health systems and its services affect people, families and communities. If you don't know what services you have access to, how to receive them, and the quality of the services provided, then an individual concern can easily become a family concern. But then it becomes a community issue before becoming a national issue. You get my drift. But that's a common pattern that knowledge and education can break. These programs are important. It's one of the places the Ministry of Health and Wellness informs you of the services available, and it's up to you to use the services. I asked Quality Assurance Manager, Ms Ira Isaacs, how important the quality of St Lucia's healthcare is. When we speak about quality, we speak about a care that is affordable. It's accessible to the persons who need it. And although it's accessible, this is also what I would say safe. It's secure. It maintains their dignity. And it also provides them with care that they are satisfied with at a certain level. So this is what we call the international standards. So when we talk about quality in healthcare services, we are seeing the healthcare, the care that we give you, the services that are delivered are safe. It's accessible. It's affordable. And it is exactly what you want. It meets your need to ensure that you are healthy. And what are the improvements and achievements within your department? Oh, there has been many achievements over the past five years in quality. For instance, St Lucia has been making a considerable stride in the OECS with regards to quality. We have a quality department established at the Ministry of Health. And that department allows us to assess the care that is delivered to the persons with regards to the gaps that we have seen. What we noted is that we had needed to embrace the concept of being internationally recognized as having quality, safe care that is accessible and affordable for clients and that they are satisfied with. So we have now moved to creating international standards on a national level. So we have healthcare standards for both our healthcare practitioners and providers. What are the care that's supposed to be delivered to the first people? How should they feel about their care? If they're not satisfied, what can you do? Also, we have collaborated with the St Lucia Borough standard on this. They have helped us to improve our standards level in the sense that they have allowed us to collaborate with the healthcare professionals, with the people to find out what really were our gaps and how we can address it. We have also been in collaboration with Carford, the Caribbean Agency for Public Health, and they have helped us considerably in just the aspects of our labs, for instance, and the Caribbean Medical Labs Foundation. They have worked with us to improve the quality in the labs on a tier system. We have now moved to tier one, which means that the services are being improved. And it is so, we have made such considerable improvements that it is said by 2020 we can be accredited. Not many persons in the OECS can say that. Another thing is that we have created a quality policy, our national healthcare quality policy, that guides us in how we should be establishing quality, that guides us in what should we be doing, what requirements should we be meeting to meet the international standards. And this has helped us considerably. Also, we have persons speaking about quality in healthcare. If you really go back 10 to 15 years, this was some tough phenomenon that wasn't really popular, but now you're hearing persons from the government level, from the technical level, from the healthcare providers level. Even your clients, the patients, the family and community are talking about quality, and this is great improvement. I would say this is one of the greatest improvements that we've had. What is the expectations of the public when it comes to delivering quality services in the health system? So what they can expect is services that meet your needs, that fits you, that you are satisfied with. We are saying that you have a right to healthcare, a right to be healthy. So when we talk about quality, what it means for you is that as much as we have set standards for ourselves, we are saying this is the level of care that should be given to you, and if you are not satisfied, we are going to do our best as possible to ensure that we meet those needs. It also means that we are creating what we call a charter, a patient charter of rights. If we in any way breach your rights, we will be held accountable for it. And so this is important because many times our clients, our population, do not understand their rights, and we are saying for you to be healthy. We need to do our part in keeping you healthy, but we also need to empower you as well to be healthy and part of that is knowing your rights, and knowing when your rights are breached and what can you do about it. And also hold us accountable when we do not give you the quality of care that needs. St Lucia's Healthcare Service provides A. International standards on a national level or B. International standards on selected community levels. The answer is St Lucia's Healthcare Service provides international standards on a national level. Let's go to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health, to see where the services are available, such as Boma Shempui, Sennysov, and other international standards. I would like to ask the Ministry of Health's Quality Assurance Manager, Ira Isaacs, to tell us about the quality of the services. The Ministry of Health's Quality Assurance Manager, to see where the services are available to the public. To see where the services are available to the Ministry of Health, such as B. International standards, such as the Caribbean Public Health Agency, the Ministry of Health's quality national healthcare policy, such as the Ministry of Health's humility to see where the services are available to the public. The Ministry of Health's Quality Assurance Manager, to see where the services are available to the public, such as B. International standards, such as the International standards. Knowing about health services is essential to well-being. One of the major complications in diabetes is blindness. The Barbano Health and Wellness Centre provides a screening program where diabetics can get their eyes checked. If retinopathy is detected early, vision can be preserved. I asked Nurse Noble to tell us more about the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Program. The National Diabetic Retinopathy Program is funded by the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and this program started in February 2018 and is run by the Ministry of Health. Thus far this program, we have screening clinics at Cassius Health Centre to serve persons in the north and a screening clinic in Beaufort to serve persons in the south. At each of these clinics, we have clinics taking place on a Thursday and Friday. Added to this program is a laser clinic which is held in Barbano Wellness Centre and these clinics take place every second, Friday and fourth Friday of the month. Why is the program important? The program is important because we have a lot of persons with diabetes in Saint Lucia and diabetic retinopathy is one of the complications of diabetes. Initial stages of diabetic retinopathy, there may be no signs or symptoms so clients don't really know that they may have diabetic retinopathy until major visual changes take place. So we are encouraging all persons with diabetes even before the symptoms show up to get their eyes screened and check to see if there is any damage to the back of the eyes so this can be treated and this will help preserve their vision. The Ministry of Health would like to encourage persons with diabetes to come to the clinics to get their eyes checked to see if there is damage to the retina because the service is free. It's free at all the centres I mentioned to you and they should try their best to find out about it. They can call, they can visit the health settings and find out when do they come in to get their eyes checked. It is important because blindness is one of the major complications of diabetic retinopathy and if we can determine or we can detect retinopathy early enough then something can be done and their vision can be preserved. So I'm encouraging everybody with diabetes to come and get their eyes checked do their early exam and see if everything is okay. If diabetic retinopathy is detected early, vision can be preserved. True or false? If diabetic retinopathy is detected early, vision can be preserved. If diabetic retinopathy is detected early, vision can be preserved. The Ministry of Health would like to encourage patients to come to the clinic to get their eyes checked to see if everything is okay. The Ministry of Health would like to encourage patients to come to the clinic to get their eyes checked to see if everything is okay. The Ministry of Health would like to encourage patients to come to the clinic to get their eyes checked because if diabetic retinopathy is detected early, vision can be preserved. The Ministry of Health would like to encourage patients to come to the clinic to get their eyes checked because if diabetic retinopathy is detected early, vision can be preserved. The Ministry of Health would like to encourage everyone who has diabetes to go to the Health Center including CAST 3, ABV 4, medical clinic and get their appointment to get checked. If diabetic retinopathy is detected early, vision can be preserved. So if you want to get vision Prince, I'll help center and find out about the program, find out about the kids who serve in it, and make sure we'll check it out. I can't stress enough how important it is to get your eyes checked if you are diabetic. The screening is free and it's not painful. I asked nurse Dr Charles at the Barbara No Health and Wellness clinic to explain the screening process and how results are graded. Once the clients get to us, they go through what is called a registration process at the front where they would just basically register, give their names, and from there we do an educated process with them. And so we try our best to help the patients understand because the whole purpose of this would be futile if the clients do not understand is the high blood sugars that contributes towards the damage that takes place in the back of their eye. And so we have this talk with them where we educate them and give them an opportunity to vent and ask their questions with regard to diabetic retinopathy and what it's all about and what they're there for. After that they're called in where we interact with them and we basically take a few information about them in terms of the history, how long have they been diabetic, the family history of diabetes, and find out a few other things about their medical conditions. And then from there we basically go through an eye screening process with them where we do a visual acuity test. That is basically to give us an idea as to how well they can see. We've had clients who've come to us, they're actually blind and they can see, think that we could actually restore the vision and this is not the purpose of the project. So from there after we've done the visual acuity test to give us an idea how well they can see, we dilate the eye where we add an eye drop to the eye which would dilate the eye. And the dilation is to open up the pupil so that when we put them on the DRS machine that the machine could see properly in the back of the eye. A lot of the clients after we've dilated the eyes we ask them to go back and sit outside where they, in a waiting area where they keep the eyes closed for about 10 minutes. Now that 10 minutes is very vital towards the dilation of the eye and the entire screening process. A lot of them tend to forget to actually keep their eyes closed for the 10 minutes and so when we would have put them, they call them back inside and put them on the machine. The machine says to us that the pupils are too small so we have to get them to go back outside, sit down and go through the entire process all over again just to get their eyes dilated. So we try to emphasize during the teaching the importance of keeping their eyes closed for the 10 minutes. And from that when they come back inside we actually put them on the DRS machine and we take the pictures of the eyes. The machine takes a total of four pictures of each eye. And from there we would have, we would interpret the pictures because we're all greater screeners we would interpret the pictures and we would refer them accordingly whether those who would be needing to see, who would need laser surgery would refer them to the Babono Wellness Centre. There are other clients, maybe they might have other indications and so we would refer them to the specific designations that they would need to do. When eye drops are put into your eyes and when you receive laser treatment it's painful. True or false? No, it's not painful. The most important thing is to keep your eyes closed for 10 minutes for proper dilation. The laser will not burn your pupils. Keep your eyes closed for 10 minutes for proper dilation for proper dilation. This is the only way to make sure that the laser system is in place for proper dilation. Let's take a look at what we've done. We've gone through the process. We've recorded it. We've done a T-Session. We've indicated what we've done. We've talked about diabetic retinopathy. We've also worked on the C-Co-Point which is a continuous blood cycle. This is what was damaged in the last few years. We've also tried to indicate what we've done with C-Co-Point. We've also done a screening. We've talked about it. We've talked about diabetes, obesity, and also about malady. After that, we checked the blood pressure and the blood cycle. We've also done a visual acuity test. We've also checked the blood flow. We've also checked the blood flow. We've also checked the blood flow. We've also done a dilate. We've also done a high-dropper. The high-dropper helps the blood flow. We've talked about it. We've talked about it. We've also checked the blood flow. We've also checked the blood flow. We've also tried to activate it. We've also done a DRS machine which is a good machine for the blood flow. To keep the blood flow so that we can know who's the blood flow is. After that, we've looked at the blood flow. We've interpreted the blood flow. We've also referred to our clients as part of the blood flow. We've interviewed them at the Health Center in Babunoa. We've also interviewed them as part of the blood flow. We've interviewed them for three months because they have 3 affectments. We've treated them for three months because they were screened. We've interviewed them for three months because they have different problems. So, I refer you according to that. Firstly, you can examine the diabetic retinopathy. You can guard the desire. A. We. B. No. We post lastly, we. Diabetic retinopathy screening is now available in St Lucia. It's one of the many improvements the Ministry of Health and Wellness has achieved so there's no need to leave the island. And it's a free service thanks to a collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I spoke to Dr. Dara Burt about the survey. The diabetic retinopathy program has improved because as you know, it's a new program. We started in February 2018, so we're just a little over a year. And from the time we've started, we've surpassed our numbers. We've screened over 1,200 patients and we've lasered over 100 patients in the past year alone. And the numbers are growing constantly. When we first started the program, we only started with eight screeners and graders. Those are the people who take the pictures of the back of the eye and they grade the images. And now we're up to at least 16 fully trained and qualified staff. So in the past year, we have lots of achievements that we're very proud of. Can you tell us about some of the collaborations? As I said, this program is new. We started off with a meeting with the Ministry of Health and a team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine because a grant was obtained from the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Fund. And with getting this grant, the team at the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine they came down to meet with stakeholders including the Ministry of Health and we decided this is a viable option for St. Lucia. So everybody was on board and that's how we were able to start this program in February 2018. The Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Program provides laser treatment at the Barbano Health Centre. True or false? True. The screening program has treated more than 1,200 patients in one year. True or false? Our program Diabetic Retinopathy allows you to work with the Ministry of Health. Your doctor who did the treatment at the Barbano Health Centre, Dr. Dara Bout spoke with the Ministry of Health about the program. It started in April 2018. Now that the program has started, the Ministry of Health has examined more than 1,000 patients for Diabetic Retinopathy and more than 1,000 patients. I joined the clinic. In this program, there are also 16 Ministry of Health workers who I closely joined for screening and grading for Diabetic Retinopathy. This clinic can benefit from the Diabetic Retinopathy program in other countries. It serves the exam for Diabetic Retinopathy so that it can have a positive effect on the patient and it serves the laser so that it can have a positive effect on the Barbano. I look forward to sharing more services and the improvements and achievements of the Ministry of Health and Wellness with you very soon. In the meantime, the contact details for the services mentioned in this video follows. Don't hesitate to call your nearest healthcare provider to make an appointment. The quality of life really matters. I look forward to sharing more services and the improvements and achievements of the Ministry of Health and Wellness with you very soon. The quality of life relies on health. Make sure you're informed. Until next time, goodbye.