 Welcome to InFocus, brought to you live by the Government Information Service and the National Television Network, and it's a live discussion call-in program, and we're going to be on air for the next 90 minutes. With me once more is my co-host, Lisa Joseph, where Lisa certainly has been quite a busy period between our last program, and it seems to come by so quickly. Yes, it does. Last week we had the acting director of NIMO, who was speaking to us about all the work being done for their preparations, and the passage of then-Tropical Storm Dorian, and Dorian has certainly been kept very much in the news. The Bahamas certainly took a pounding, and we know that members of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, particularly Florida, put on very much alert, but it's just moving a bit up north, and we understand- So the Carolinas are now on the watch. Yes. Prime Minister of St. Michel, Honourable Alan Chastney, leading a delegation to the Bahamas today to look at some of the recovery efforts and what role Carolinas can play. So maybe a good time to get a lead off today on our program before we go into our new segment to look at what the Prime Minister's visit will be like and what's actually going to happen in the Bahamas during that visit. Yes, Ryan. There's an official statement that has been released from the office of the Prime Minister. As you know, Honourable Alan Chastney is the Chairman of the Caribbean Community, CARICOM. If I get into that, let us say good morning, and thank you so much to the listeners on WVENT Radio 93.5 FM. Thank you so much for joining us. And Prime Minister, the Honourable Alan Chastney, and who's also the Chairman of CARICOM, as you just heard me say there, today led a high-level delegation to the Bahamas, which has been ravaged by Hurricane Dorian over the past few days. The slow-moving hurricane brought strong winds, heavy rain, and a life-threatening storm surge to the Bahamas. Flooding homes and entire villages with the death toll linked to the hurricane rise into as much as 20 we heard this morning. CARICOM and OECS member countries have pledged their support, and Prime Minister Chastney will be accompanied to the Bahamas by the Barbados Prime Minister, Honourable Mia Motley, the Caribbean Tourism Organization's Chairman and Senutia's Minister for Tourism, Honourable Dominic Fede, the Secretary-General of CARICOM, the Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, and the Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, Siddhima, Mr. Ronald Jackson. And the CARICOM Chairman has been in regular contact with the Bahamas Prime Minister, Honourable Dr. Yubat Minnes. And in a statement released this week, Prime Minister Chastney says that the Caribbean is in full solidarity with the government and people of the Bahamas and stands ready to give whatever assistance is required to deal with the effects of this tragedy. Now, in advance of Hurricane Dorian, Siddhima had already taken the lead to coordinate the regional response mechanism, and Siddhima deployed two rapid needs assessment teams to the Bahamas. And the purpose of the visit is to continue discussions and see where CARICOM can provide more immediate support. So those rapid response teams have been underground and really get in a sense of what it is that the people of the two most affected areas of the Bahamas, the Abaco Islands, as well as Grand Bahamas. So the Government of Senusha has pledged full support to the recovery efforts for the Bahamas, and Siddhima has informed that the immediate needs of the islands, water and water pumps. However, Siddhima has advised that monetary contributions would be easier and logical as procurement of needed items can be purchased at locations closer to the Bahamas. So the Government of Senusha has thanked all the Senushans who have expressed interest in this humanitarian thrust, and is encouraging everyone to make their cash contribution to the following accounts in the name of the Government of St. Lucia. So at first, National Bank using the Swift Code, LU0OBLCLC, the account number there is 6-00-2760. At RBTT that account number is 100, pardon, that should be 18-00-3-00-00-04-7196, and at the Bank of Nova Scotia the account there is 200-2817. The Bank of St. Usha is 901300163 at First Caribbean International Bank. It's 106962170. We can leave that card up just for a little while longer so that our viewers can see what those account numbers are. You could also log onto the Governor St. Usha website where you can get these account numbers as well. And for us here in St. Usha, I think many people are saying thank you and being knowing that St. Usha could have very often been in the position that the Bahamas is right now. And Hurricane Dorian as a tropical storm proved to be so unpredictable because our information when Dorian was making its way across from Barbados to St. Usha that it would have landed here as a category one. But then Dorian decided no. And as we know, the storms have a mind of their own. They do their own thing. And so many other factors, environment come into play. And it remained as a tropical storm. And it just passed over us. And so saying thank you to the Lord would not be unusual for us to do. However, our hearts are broken. Certainly my heart is broken seeing the damage that is caused there. But it is also a teaching moment. We cannot, cannot under or overstate the importance of always being a state of preparedness and heeding the warnings. I personally saw news items from the Bahamas where Prime Minister Minnes went into the Abba Islands, for example, and pleaded with people there to leave. But as with anything else, what some of the residents were saying is that we've been lucky, nothing has really ever happened. And so we're not leaving. We want to stay. And so people stayed. Some evacuated, but a lot of people stayed. And lives lost. And there are so many more who are missing at this time. And it also breaks my heart to hear that the search and rescue that would be ending today. And so let's just hope that everyone is accounted for once that operation is done at the end of today. Yes, this is certainly a tragedy that really, you know, really breaks it out, as you said. And just last week while we were here just thanking ourselves and thanking the Lord that we were spared the real force of the storm at the time. And we knew that had potential to really accelerate into hurricane and being so unpredictable. No one, you know, could have actually pinpointed where would have been struck hardest. And the potential for increased strength and damage was certainly there. But you know the discussion wasn't even for Dorian. So to get into a category five, but to be as strong as it was, even stronger than what Maria carried, just imagine that. And it was fascinating to have heard some of the comments that were really negative in terms of, you know, persons being given false alarms and why were people forced to prepare for events like this. In 2019, it really was beyond me. It boggles the mind that we will have that sort of mindset, given after what happened with Irma, what happened with Maria. Our new normal now in St. Louis and the rest of the Caribbean is that storms like Irma, Maria and now Dorian will happen every year, every hurricane season. That is what we're being told. But we need not be told that because we are experiencing it. And so we can no longer believe that, well, okay, there are only three storms that they've predicted it's going to be. Because now the new normal is a category five and we look at 185 power events. This, I mean, it is, you can't even grasp the magnitude of what that is. And I don't want to ever have to experience it. But I know that perhaps it's inevitable because of what the trend is in the region. And so we have to completely shift the way we think, the way we approach disaster preparedness. We need to have plans in our homes that talk about it year round. Because we know that even outside of the designated hurricane season, we get storms as well. We get rain events. Yes, what was incredible too was bearing in mind the topography of the major islands of the Bahamas and to see that they were virtually reduced to marinas, basically. And this morning, I think that the account for a long time had been seven, but it had been up to 20 this morning. That's not finalized because certainly a lot of surgeons will be going on. You said that it would be called off soon, but it's going to be a long time in coming before you actually get the final and true picture of the devastation really brought on the Bahamas. So we're hoping that things will improve and not be the worst. And did you see those pictures of the airport? The terminal was certainly like a fall coup that was invaded. It was completely wrecked. And that is indicative of what the entire area looks like. So just reduced to nothing, rubble. And so we can try to, where we talk about resilience, we talk about building with resilience in mind, but we can't necessarily prevent that sort of damage from happening. It's beyond our scope. That's not within our control, but we can mitigate. And we can do things to keep ourselves safe. And the most important thing is to always heed the warnings. I'm not trained. I'm not a trained person in meteorology nor you, but we have the individuals who can tell us. And let's track it together with them. Let's not try to pretend that we know more than them and dismiss what the information is. And I'll do that. I think over the years we've had our events, we've had Debbie going through the Christmas Eve trough. We had Tomas. And that's just really on a very small scale of what that damage can be in a hurricane island, which I don't really have any memory of. A lot of people I hate, older people talk about that. And so they would have experienced the island and it is in the record books as one of the most damaged and dangerous hurricanes. So we need not go back into that era and get into complacency and all of this. We need to take our disaster preparedness more seriously. Yes, listen, just before we go into other news items in the news segment, just reminding all of you as analysts that we are very much in the hurricane season. We still need to stay on guard. And as Lisa said, place a lot of confidence in those who guide us. It's an act of nature. But again, luckily we have persons who are trained in forecasting and we have improved technology who can track these systems. So let's place some sort of confidence in their ability to at least warn us that these systems are approaching whatever natural disaster that will be coming our way. You know, some are more difficult to predict. It's an act of nature. Historian wise. Yes, it's an act of nature. Full of all of the computer models. Yes, it's an act of nature that we do not really have much control over but we have some means of getting some sort of warning. As we look to other items in the news today in focus, the Department of the Public Service is addressing one of the most serious problems plaguing the working environment. The Department is aiming to curb internal complications that are negatively affecting the human resource. More in this report from Miguel Morise. In recent times, public and private sectors have been faced with the issue of poor indoor equality and mold. It is said that exposure to poor indoor equality can cause short-term eye, nose and throat irritation as well as headaches, dizziness and fatigue. The government of St. Lucia is currently faced with the constant challenge of relocating staff, conducting deep cleaning and in some cases abandoning building structures altogether. Communication personnel in the Department of the Public Service spoke with Facilities Management Officer, Lyndon Barry George's, in order to better understand the situation. I don't think that the poor air quality is directly the cause of the mold but it can lead to creating an environment for the mold to thrive. A lot of times what has been done is that we move into existing buildings. These existing buildings are not newly built and if they are newly built which means whether or not the construction was to standard. If the air conditioning system which is supposed to create that artificial environment within the building is not designed properly, then you're additionally creating a situation where the environment will allow for the mold to thrive in it. Also we need to make sure on our end that standards are being followed when we're constructing. If you do not construct correctly, insulate your walls if you need to, then what you have is it may not happen in the early stages but as the building gets older then you find that the conditions, it does not have that resistance to sustain the conditions that you need to maintain on the inside. So standards are the key to everything that we do. Typically Graham Lucy building before we did our media works, you had a lot of surface cracks. So you had areas where rains, water comes in and the water is being stored inside that wall. So you have a lot of condensation. Then you have on the afternoon, the sun hits it. So what does the sun do? It dries from the outside and it brings everything on the inside. What does the AC do on the inside of the space? It dries and it brings everything here. They stop at the center and that's where you have condensation forming and you have that moisture is favorable for mold to start growing from inside here. So what happened is treating the system from the source. Mold always has a source especially when it relates to a building. That was one of the sources of the mold. He said mold can be resolved if officers add hair to precautionary measures. If you're transferring from one ministry from an old building into a new location one has to make sure that certain protocols are followed. The cleaning of your books thoroughly, properly and bringing it into the space properly quarantined into the new space to make sure that you don't transfer the bacteria into the new space. It's also a situation of what do we maintain? How do we, our housekeeping on the inside of the space because a lot of persons may think that the conditions are only created by the mechanical equipment. It's not my books on my desk, the genitalial services within the building. How frequently do we do a deep cleaning of the space to make sure that dust particles are not kept? Because you have dust particles, the genitals come to clean. If they do not clean properly, what do you have? If the AC system does not provide that assurance that you need, that the air is balanced then you have a condition on the inside that's favorable for the dust particles to get attached to the water droplets in the air. You have mold. Now most times what happens is that you don't detect it until someone says I'm feeling sick, I'm not feeling too well and then it happens too late. So that's why we're trying our best on the public service and to advise persons on the way forward how to deal with the situation because most times we may be slightly the cause of it. Over time, poor air quality can trigger the effects of asthma and constant exposure can lead to respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease or even cancer. Permanent Secretary in the Department of the Public Service Peggy and Sudat reported that the government is seeking creative and new interventions to deal with this problem. We as a public service have implemented a number of measures. Among them would be making arrangements for medical consultations for staff, medical consultations and testing for staff to ensure that they are not impacted negatively by the issues in the workplace. Additionally, for the longer term solution we have identified some areas and we have brought in some consultants or experts to do a more in-depth analysis so that we can find out exactly what is happening and what exactly is causing the problems to come up with a longer term solution for dealing with them. The Assistant Permanent Secretary in the Department of the Public Service, Auguste Duval Toussaint, is calling on all public servants to assist in alleviating the aforementioned problem. Over the last few years, we've had a prevalence of occupational health and safety issues affecting many of our government agencies. In order to mitigate these issues we have instituted a preventative maintenance regime. That regime includes biannual deep cleaning of the office space, the quarterly servicing of the air-conditioned units and proper storage of household chemicals. In addition to these measures, we encourage officers to take personal responsibility of their office space. We encourage officers who have offices to occasionally open your windows so that fresh air can come in to better ventilate the office space. In addition, we are making a very special appeal for officers who eat at the desk. Please, please officers, do not leave leftover food in your desk as this practice creates the environment for the development of mold. The government of St. Lucia continues to work tirelessly and seeks to eliminate the problem. From the communications unit in the Department of the Public Service, Miguel Morris is reporting. St. Lucia's arts and crafts will show at Cara Festa just finished, Cara Festa 14, which is held in Trinidad and Tobago. The St. Lucia's generated a lot of interest and sales. Behind this report there is a wide range of St. Lucia's creativity that Cara Festa was just eager to participate in. The St. Lucia's Arts and Craft Expo at Cara Festa 14 in Trinidad and Tobago has been making an impact on regional visitors from day one. Rafael Descartes is representing Membet. So far it's been very good. I was setting up and my first customer came. She bought the first bag. I took pictures and all. Interest has been high for Lisa Barton-Volney of the zip code and the clothesline. Well, it has been great because our items are different. Nobody expected to see jewelry out of zippers. Yes, so the response from persons has been great. It's very encouraging. For Terrell Nicholas, the strategy was to use national flags to appeal to a diverse Caribbean audience. The islands participate in Cara Festa. I did spoon necklaces with the flags in there. So that has been a big hit. I made quite a few sales for the morning just for the fact that the flag was in the spoon. You know, one man bought six of them. Jennifer Saint-Louis of Poetry Kisses showcased products made from material that is uniquely St. Lucian. We use a lot of local products. We use shells and stones. Seeds are local seeds as well. And a lot of natural materials, especially hemp cord for people with sensitive skin. And so we're always mindful of these things. But I try my best to capture the essence of the island and of the Caribbean around us. Shirley and Edward of Shirley's Creations, a veteran of regional exhibitions, displayed her uniquely created St. Lucian-themed Christmas decorations. But I can use something very, very new, which are the balls and cinnamon and local products, which is St. Lucian Creole Christmas. The focus on St. Lucian online entrepreneur Darian Louis was to bring Caribbean creativity onto one single online platform. Through Shop the Caribbean. Carifesta provided the perfect setting. And here to showcase our wonderful products from across the region, especially my home island of St. Lucian, from craft to sulfur soups to virgin coconut oil. Because at Shop the Caribbean we believe that we have some really amazing products across the Caribbean region, but there needs to be a platform whereby collective shopping can be done, consolidation can be done. Darian notes that one of the items that Darian has been driven by visitors to the island. And one of our best products and best movers on the site is the sulfur mud soup, which depicts the sulfur mud from the volcano, which visitors sought after. They come to St. Lucian for a one-day return home. They want that mud feeling and that exfoliating feeling they cannot get. So we've translated this into a mud soup and it has been one of our best movers online since then. The St. Lucian artists at Carifesta are hoping that with days left they will be a greater interest for authentic St. Lucian creativity. They are also learning that there is real competition out there. From the Government Information Service I am Rajvaro Lawrence reporting from Carifesta 14 in Trinidad and Tobago. The Department of Health and Wellness is continuing to make preparations for the smooth transition from the Victoria Hospital to the new Owen King EU Hospital. Through a series of discussions, here's for the Neptune. A delegation from the University Hospital of Martinique recently paid a visit to the Owen King EU Hospital to provide feedback and technical expertise on the transition to the Millennium Heights Medical Complex. Permanent Secretary in the Department of Health and Wellness, Felix St. Hill says he's very pleased with the collaboration with the team from Martinique and from a recent transition to a new hospital. The support is in practically all facets of the transition in medical and clinical, you know, organizational, technological. So the team that just arrived in St. Lucia that have been working first for the past two days, they've been looking at our electrical systems, our water systems, our medical gas systems, you know, our policy we forgot to maintain even some of our organizational issues. Like I mentioned, we probably share quite similar cultural experiences to the change management process, you know, they've been advising us because the important thing is that Martinique itself just went through a transition in themselves to the University Hospital of Martinique where they had some enlargement of their own facilities and their own services. Director of Cooperation at the University Hospital of Martinique Christian Bourgeois says it is important that they strengthen the medical cooperation with St. Lucia. We discovered wonderful and exciting building. This OKEU is really very, very interesting building. We discover also a huge team, people ready for the change. This visit was a very good point because we can see that all the comprehensive plans have been prepared, but there are some very specific technical issues to address in order to secure all the plans. So we live in St. Lucia in the hope that they will succeed and we can succeed this challenge. Department of Health and Wellness wants to assure the general public that transition in plans for the new hospital are progressing smoothly and that they are committed to providing quality health care services. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness I am Fennel Neptune. We had some very interesting stories in our new segment, the Department of Public Service looking to make the workplace much more conducive for public servants. St. Lucia's Atom Craft on the Spirit Cardifesta, 14 in Triantobago that just ended and also we just heard Department of Health and Wellness looking to get the transition going to the new hospital, the Owen King EU Hospital. And I know a lot of people looking forward to the completion of the transition period and so that you could say hello to the hospital as it opens. We've heard from the Prime Minister that the hospital will be opening in October and so I know that is a lot of excitement about that. What I'm very, very excited about is St. Lucia's Participation Cardifesta 14. I'm so happy that our artisans were able to have been part of that journey and going off into that space where you have so many people from the Caribbean descending Triantobago as we know it's really a hub of creativity and to have had St. Lucia have an absolute breakthrough there is a big it is a sort of nod that we have what it takes and all we need to do is to really pay attention to what it is that our craft is, what the dreams are and nurture that and we can make it anywhere. So I'm happy that those who went down got the response that they did and most importantly the business aspect making them money. Yes, I must say I really feel privileged to have had the opportunity to actually experience what Caifers was about and use one of the buzzwords of Caifers in my own opinion out of creativity and also culture of the entire Caribbean it really brings it out and to really experience different cultures based on what is portrayed by the various islands especially one on the island night and as I said the craft and the creativity of the different islands how some are common, some are very some are unique and peculiar to the individual islands so it's really a wonderful experience and something that I'm sure whenever it's also in a country the local inhabitants certainly enjoy coming out and actually witnessing what goes on. So while we are all the same in the Caribbean people like to say that and we are all different and there are unique nurses that we can really play often and be able to covenish for ourselves. Alright, we want to take a break here. When we come back we will be having our guests with us very topical issues. We'll be having Dr Sharon Belmont George and Monty Alexander from the Department of Health and Wellness will be discussing smart facilities and of course the visit of that US Naval Ship so stay with us, we'll be back right after this. So in the next episode, we will be having a third-stage at Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui, Kui to learn the tsunami signs. We will have enough time to do so that the tsunami can come out. It's a commission for group management of the earth before, a place for central earth management, a financial agency for If you are in receipt of an abnormally high bill, it is highly possible that you have a leak. That leak may not always be visible. Before you contact Wasco, conduct a do-it-yourself test. 1. Record your meter reading. 2. Do not use water for 30 minutes to 1 hour. 3. Take another meter reading. If the reading changes, you have a leak. Contact a plumber to identify and fix the leak at the earliest. A message brought to you by the Water and Sewage Company Incorporated, Wasco. 4. If you do not use water on your computer, you will have a leak at the earliest. 5. Do not use water for 30 minutes to 1 hour. A media outlet may need to do another measure of water. Thanks for keeping the focus, we are back live on air in the studios of the government information service in national television network and you're also on radio live on WVENT 93.5 FM and as he just told you before we went to the break we'll be having our in studio guests so join us and you will also get the opportunity to place your calls you can also send us your questions on our social platforms and we're certainly hoping that you'll be able to participate at the end of the program so listen once more you're gonna be looking at your guests we make a formal invitation right now and certainly give them the the sort of welcome that they need as we stay in focus today can I welcome with an apology so what I'm thinking cylinder arts right so Monty Alexander love him but Monty Emmanuel engineer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness pardon for the slip up in the name do you get that often do people yes okay so I'm not too much out of stride right and Dr. Sharon Belma George medical officer of health within that ministry thank you so much for making the time I know it must be very busy especially for you Dr. George because people are supposed to be making direct contact with you for getting on to the ship for surgery of physicians who want to get on there and I'm sure you coordinate in everything but we'll talk about that in just a while we want to sort of go back to where we began resilience mitigation preparing ourselves for eventualities that we really have no control over and in St. Lucia St. Lucia is part of a regional program which is sponsored by the British government by the United Kingdoms Department for International Development Difford and that is a smart health care facilities let's start there smart what is smart about them I'm smart health care facilities is a concept of safe and green the concept was introduced in 2013 and then we brought about the project in 2015 it's all part of great resilience in the health care service many issues have surfaced throughout the years in health care that we figured it's about time that we get a concept and ensure that the facilities function during and after a storm or hurricane or event because disaster is not only hurricane but we tend to focus on hurricane but is actually any disaster event so the concept is a safe concept meaning that you have a structure that is resilient to disaster and the green concept is very environmentally friendly trying to lower carbon footprint within the facilities in terms of getting rid of mercury and keeping the facilities greener in terms of lighting and solar panels reducing that that consumption to bring the facilities to a level of savings energy savings and any other savings within the sector so that is the actual concept of smart so the facilities I mean it's in the beginning and we started the project it took a little while because we had to get a lot of base lines for the project because solution now we had to take readings of all our electricity supplies we had to go and train people since to go and the structural assessments of all the facilities so we've assessed all the health centers on the island we know the current condition so we know the state of all the facilities on the island so from that we decided with the project that we're going to take a systems approach and start repairing our health centers to a level of smart smart has now give themselves an a 70 where is safe and 70 is the level of greenness of your facility so once you reach once you get that level of a 70 you know a smart facility I mean it's in right now sent sent Vincent has a smart facility Greenator so we now on board with that project so we've already done all the baseline work for the project so earlier last year we moved the construction aspect of it we have now have 12 facilities in the construction we've completed six and the other six is currently ongoing we want to complete those six facilities by the end of the year so that's doable yes it is doable because right now we have contractors on the ground actually working so we've already completed six and the other six right now should be completed within the end of the year now when you talk about having done the assessment what did these assessments tell you about where the facilities were at and what what would some of the more pressing things you needed that needed to be done in order to make it resilient first and then we can go into our green okay when we set the facilities they were basically at a C score for safety and at 35 percent for greenness so which means like we were let's start with the green first I mean we had no energy efficient fixtures for sets LED's no solar lighting or generators were lacking for the smaller facilities I mean for the history of we never focused that much on green so it was with our scores were very low with most of the other Caribbean islands because our focus was never such on green structurally the most of our buildings scored a C because small small elements were missing in terms of strapping roof the rafters and those little elements for safety we made changes in terms of strengthening some elements in the building because some of our facilities are very old because remember those health facilities have been on island to me from the time I know myself with all of these facilities so we find that they were little structural issues that would reduce your score so in the in the project is the elements we do focus on maybe changing some partitions that were old and putting concrete partitions to strengthen the rigidity of the building these little elements that you have to look at the facilities change some roofing strap like a strap them down and show that that you have that element of safety oh we change some of the windows from normal home windows to hurricane resistant windows so these are the elements that we worked with to ensure that we have that level of safety and then for the green now that we do it we have now have energy efficient lighting LED lighting throughout the facilities we have low flush toilets we have generators we have solar power for before so we all these elements came in to raise our our carbon lower carbon footprint sorry also an aspect of the project also dealt with contingency where we went into the facilities that we were under construction took the stuff and we had a like we see a workshop and we focus on energy consumption because even if you have any light or light stays on all night you still not saving any energy so we have to try to change the behavior of the staff so we sat them down we had workshops we took the ancillary staff also because they were not responsible for putting off the lights and showing that the toilets are clean so we had a focus on them to make sure when you live in the building put off all the lights turn off the computers because those things you don't think about it but people think of it like you know his government is not mine so I leave the building I'm not worried about it yeah so the energy is still being consumed so even if I give you an energy efficient AC but you'll leave the room nobody's in the room the AC is blowing all day the bill is still being generated so that's one of the aspects we took very seriously we had a entire workshop with all our staff we tried to change that behavior also as part of disaster we also did disaster planning we took everybody with said disaster plans for all our facilities that were under construction we ensure that there was a proper disaster plan coming out of the Ministry of Health master plan so all facilities are aware of the disaster plan would you call during a disaster what your roles and functions are your charts on the wall all these things were put into place so if there's a disaster one of the facilities you know who to call we know how the protocols going to go we did some minor drills fire service came in so it's not just about the safety of the village of the goodness we also brought in the element of a disaster so if we have a disaster you know where to react you know where your triage might be you know where are you going to cope with that that that fire or that mass casualty so we had some events to work through so that it's not just about green or structure it's also about the personal aspect the functional aspect of the project so we also did that to ensure that people just not aware that oh we have a ring building or oh it's safe but then you in the time of action you need to know what to do so we also ensure that there was part of the project so most of the nurses in those facilities are aware of the disaster plan their reaction plan who do you call it there's a storm and even during this one it worked rather well everybody were able to to call in and say hey this happened that happened you know what to do so you know I mean luckily nothing happened to us but everybody was prepared better than before usually our USUs take a little longer to set up but this time everybody knew their roles it was quicker it was easier so that's what we're trying to maintain I mean looking forward we won't do all the facilities especially the PhD facilities the primary healthcare facilities so we weren't looking at to get all of them to that same level so the project has just started with those 12 and we're looking to move forward with all the rest of the facilities we have a total of 35 34 34 and I just want to find I knew you're speaking basically from an engineering standpoint in terms of you know looking at resilience and your your greening but I just wanted to part of the plan was also to look at the service that you can be providing and probably in that area would have been increased rooms stations for doctors additional staff something that was that taken into account I would just basically do it under the smart project it was not taken into account the smart project allow you to improve your current infrastructure but we have another project coming on stream very soon from the OECS that will allow that we're now looking at putting out terms of reference for us to increase our services our SOPs find out what is what is going on within the the ministry what we're going to provide and then we're looking under that project we'll be looking at expansion of services currently we were just looking at taking our stock and bring it to a certain level before you expand because expansion costs money and the donors will figure it out to give you an expansion you might end up with a 40 room facility and then they don't want the money to go into that kind of of expense so they want to know this is your facility how do we get it better so the ministry of health now will come in on the other end and decide okay not that we have a good facility how do we improve it to meet the services we want to offer so that is kind of the approach we took with that aid because they will not allow in any expansion of the footprint yes I'd ask that because I'm sure that persons will be viewing this program and without their own experiences facing health centers and would like to reduce on the way the number of doctors that are available and the services that are being provided so let's look at that that aspect well we're going in that direction the second phase of SMART from the ministry standpoint would be looking at the service provided and how do we expand the services and where do we go from there so it we are aware of that and then it is part of the it is the next phase into the SMART for now we're just bringing our stock to a level of satisfaction so we know we safe we're resilient and then we're reducing on our power bills our water bills so that is our focus for now maybe I think into next year we'll go more into expansions and this because this project ends December for us so then from January in financial year we're looking to the other aspect of the program can you give us an idea of the facilities that have already been completed okay the facilities that have already been completed we've completed Lafag, Saltybus, Morgulge, Beccent, Derrisso, Belvi and Monripo those are the things that are completed the current things that are under construction is Morsi Entrypo, Tuoshe Castries, Library, let me see Library, oh Saltybus are the six that are under construction currently so do we know what the for those that have been completed how the communities how have they received the new facilities well okay we did a we did a KPA before to assess both internally and actually to find out what the views of the persons in the community and the provincial health centers were always part of the baseline we have not gone back into the community as yet because the most of the facilities were just completed within the last month but the next step of that is to do another KPA to find out what is the reaction to the facility but in in the beginning people were complaints were like they were extra hot the seating they were outside in the rain so we took all these into consideration when we were doing the small designs and small changes to the facility so now that we've just completed I think Bec so and Derrisso completed two weeks ago so the next thing is to go back and get reaction so we want a month so that they can actually go into the facility and use it and see okay what is your reaction so in the clinic they will go back in and say okay are you more comfortable what do you find in the facility so we have to set that well the baseline again compare our baseline to our target and see what we get so that's where we are well thank you Monty Manu we're going to take another break on our program and he's actually an engineer in the ministry of health and wellness he'll be back on in focus growth all the artificial flavoring sweeteners and colors too we consume and we don't spare a thought for the damage that they'll do alz and GMOs are not the solution excessive agrochemical use additives and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment join the good food revolution grow buy and consume organic a message from rise st lusia and the ministry of sustainable development with funding from the GEF small grants program UNDP thanks for staying with us live in focus and we're also reminding you we're coming from the studios of the government information service and the national television network we're also live on w vent radio 93.5 and 94.7 f m alisa we've got a other guest in studio Dr. Sharon Belma George and we've got some questions for you as well yes we'll be talking about a comfort comfort neighbors neighborship in a while I just wanted to say one of the question to Monty under the smart program are we looking at equipment as well for these health facilities or that doesn't form part of the part of the program smarter equipment greener equipment no but no it doesn't form part of the program in terms of currently implemented in this program but part of the new program we'll be looking into the equipment that we have the only equipment that we looked at was like mercury anything of mercury anything that was against the environment but it did not go into replacing equipment it's just a matter of removing so then it's upon the ministry to replace so that is another reason why we're looking at the face to to start new equipment more energy efficient equipment but all that is part of the program okay just to remind you that your questions you can send them in for us at and we have the telephone number that's 468 2162 so when that gets on screen you could call in with your questions and you could also send it to our facebook page we will post a question to the guest for you uh Dr. Sharon Belmont George the U.S. Naval ship comfort to be in St. Duchamp I know it's going to come perhaps a day or two before but we'll be serving St. Duchamp from the 23rd of September to the October 2nd so it's I know a lot has been said already about the ship why it's come in and so forth we don't necessarily want to go all in and out but except to say that the U.S. comfort is coming because well the main the primary purpose of the it's a humanitarian mission and it's to provide humanitarian support and assistance to partner nations and this strategy is strengthening the cooperation the partnership within the region the U.S. Caribbean 2020 strategy this was enacted since 2016 and I mean health is just one of the pillars within the strategy it also includes education security energy diplomacy and prosperity so it's really the mission is really to strengthen our cooperation in the U.S. within the region and it's not new from 2007 the comfort humanitarian mission has been serving the region and this is going to be the seventh deployment they started from the 15th of June and they will end on the 15th of November this year we are just very fortunate to be one of the countries because they've never been here before despite I'm not aware of it being here before I know it's been to Jamaica and a lot of the other Caribbean countries but this year St. Lucia will be in Grenada Haiti Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago St. Kitts so some of the other islands are quite happy as well to be a part of of this humanitarian mission coming here the ship gets here on the 23rd of September and leaves on the 2nd of October there'll be a two-day setup period so services will be available from the 25th of September up to the 30th of September so about six days are providing both services in terms of within our walking clinics and also for surgical care on board the ship and those walking clinics add to the OKEU as well as the castries comprehensive secondary school the OKEU is confirmed but we've not confirmed the castries comprehensive because we have some concerns in terms of the logistics and the traffic with there so we're looking at another side by the end of the month we will be able to before the end of the month sorry we'll be able to confirm our second site for the walking clinic and I know many people have concerns because when we met with the team from the the mission the naval team and they said that we could set up two clinics we first said okay one in the north one in the south because we figured we need to make it accessible for everybody but because the ship they're coming in on the 23rd they have a two-day setup period and they're coming in with a lot of heavy equipment for example dentistry is one of those services that they'll be providing they're coming in with 17 dental chairs and if you know the size of a dental chair and the setup of dental equipment so they indicated to us that the clinic must be a maximum of 40 as much as we wanted a clinic there they were not able to increase the setup time and it would mean less days to set up so what we need to ensure is in place is a transportation system for persons around the island because we want to ensure that everybody who needs care can take advantage and access the service of those of those walking clinics because a wide range of services will be available there as well to the public so when you see a transportation system for the public is that to say that the ministry is making specific provisions to get people to the clinic no we are not making provisions to get persons to but we are hoping that different communities and different community groups and also persons with families that live down the coast and would like to ensure that your grandparents or your relatives get you ensure that there's a transportation system to get them there since we're not able to set up a clinic in the south of the island and based on the number of professionals that will be there they will be able to see a large number of patients at the clinic they've indicated clinics start from eight to four every day for the six days and they've indicated that they could see a total of 500 persons per day per clinic so because people say 500 people in a day in a day that's a lot so but the team is also very large the team is large no it's about 200 health professionals from physicians to nurses to doctors to physiotherapists so the team is about 200 persons coming down so they will be able to see quite a few persons per day within the clinics now with the the services being a lot of people have questions about what it is that they can get I'm seen for and also their questions about what exactly when you talk about surgery operation surgery so let's just clarify some of those areas the services first let's deal first with what people can walk in for so yeah I just want to wake up and go yeah yes the two big clinics that we'll be having in the vicinity of castries on the north of the island these are the walk-in clinics between eight a.m. from the 25th of September to the 30th from eight to four where persons can just come in those clinics would be provided will be providing internal medicine that is persons who are hypertensive diabetic pediatrics that is for children there'll be pediatricians there to see children with ailments general medicine persons who just want to come in and get a check up or concerned about something I want to get a second review can come in um dental services cleaning dental work they're going to be providing a wide range of dental services to us there's a lot of surgeries so a lot of people ask that as well if they need some form of dental surgery some levels will be will be provided they'll review and see who needs want to make such a decision so so yes there'll be a wide range of like I said they'll be coming down with 17 dental chairs I don't think we have into our primary care facilities um optometry and eye care they'll be reviewing for persons who need to get the eyeglasses replaced or get new ones or get it reviewed they will be doing that and providing those eyeglasses free of charge as well to to the public some people on journals just the uh generic forms fancy well they're coming from the US it's a wide range um will be available um to you so I think this is a good opportunity for persons who need to get their eyes checked um within our primary care public health services we don't provide um eyeglasses and we know it's expensive we know they're persons who need it they need to get their exchange and they can't afford it so we think that it is really an opportunity for persons to come in and get that done they'll also be providing physiotherapy and reviews because they'll be there these are unorthopedic specialists there as well so persons who need physiotherapy done they'll be a physiotherapist on on board as well um women's health the mythology that is for ailments of the skin and also pharmacy so they will be providing medication for for persons who who need it and those drugs will be is in collaboration with our pharmacy all of the drugs that they are bringing in is presently the list is already with our drug inspector because this is how we bring drugs in under normal circumstances by the law so we are ensuring that we follow all of the regulations of the country and so drugs will also be provided for persons who need medication and that's free as well so all of the services are provided free of charge during the humanitarian mission and so just to stress that the drugs that they bring in in effect has already been vetted yes so they're not bringing in anything that's unknown to you or something that may be harmful no this collaboration and as with all of the other collaborations at the ministry of health because this is not new we have a lot of partner agencies from the US from the UK I'm sure you are aware of Starkey that comes every year they're coming in October where they do herring health and provide um herring aids free of charge they've been doing it for years we have World Pediatric Project which deals with our children and do free surgeries so we have been collaborating with a lot of partners from the US and otherwise and we ensure that all of the regulations are met in terms of ensuring that all of the specialists go through the licensing and registration process through the different councils all of the physicians the nurses the allied health staff are being vetted through those councils by the law and it's a collaborative mission so on the boat and within the community clinics our healthcare professionals will be working alongside the US health professionals so it won't be that persons are doing their own thing we'll be working with them and also it allows a level of continuity of care because anything that is done we need to know we keep in track of who comes in and what is done to ensure whatever follow-up care we're able to provide within the community or the hospital afterwards we notice certainly from the time this news broke solutions were running with it it was in the air they were comments positive and negative and we know that even while the operation is going to be going on in San Lucia your usual triage would be something that's very very important based on that sort of numbers that they're going to be dealing with tell us on some of some of the provisions how the process actually going to start from away from the triage period up until the actual service delivery yes as we do what our wellness centers anybody coming in would have to be triaged to see what it is what their condition is their vital signs all of that will be taken and our staff will be working alongside their staff to do those initial reviews and registration of patients coming in on the D and we are also going to ensure that whatever procedures are done that those are well documented and persons are given referrals after they are seen the other issue which we discussed very early is to ensure for example look in the case of the the medication we won't want medication coming in that is not available here so the person would be on it for two two months and then afterwards it's an issue so it would be in it would be in relation to our national formulary of drugs that's available and drugs that we allow into the country so that is why our drug inspector was on board from very early to ensure that whatever drugs whatever medication is coming in meets the same standard of of what we what we have and what's affordable after the fact yes yes so we once the ministry of health is involved we also ensure that due diligence we ensure that everything is is put in place because at the end of the day we bear the responsibility so we are working very closely to ensure that all of the processes are in place to ensure the safety of persons who are accessing care within the the mission as if anything else in St. Lucia there are always persons who will have doubts will have questions we but it's it's voluntary so persons who are not who don't feel comfortable that's okay but for persons who need care we think it's a good opportunity for persons to come in and access care with this mission it seems to be a lot of comfort so we're going to take a break now in the program we'll be back before our final segment stay first as we keep you in focus we'll be back after this break the eight university recognized rights of the consumer is the right to be heard this means that every consumer who is dissatisfied with a good or service has the right to lodge a complaint to the provider of that good or that service this should be the first point of lodging a complaint ensure that the receipt as proof of the transaction is available so this can contribute a bit is in gas and in the space for TPI we can try to do everything we can to ensure that we lower the amount of gas we can serve to prevent the earth from getting hotter and the need to lower the amount of gas we can serve is mitigation for me it has changed it has changed the name of the whole world that is to say that the gas in oil is very good that is why the earth is getting hotter so we can do everything we can to prepare and recover for these negative consequences because of climate change we all know what to do for example we can do everything we can to protect everything that we plant it's natural chemical life for us to reduce damage in the cyclone and goblins to build a channel for the people who need it and to do everything we can to live with climate change to be pre-information as a plan adaptation national government and damage or even support to protect the cold and to not settle it thanks for staying with us we are back on air and reminding you you can call us on 468 to 162 we are open for calls in this segment and you're also live on w vent radio 93.5 fm and 94.7 Dr. George just as you came to the close of your previous comments you did mention about the fact beside it from triage and it was also very heartening to note too that there'll be close check on persons who come in and the follow-up meeting is quite important after the visit of the ship that there will be continued assessments and follow-through on persons who actually come to the clinics yes this is very important because anybody who has a procedure done within the community they would need to be referred to our wellness center based on where the persons live to ensure they get the necessary follow-up care and also for our surgical procedures which will be done on the ship we have our teams also working on the ship with the US team referral to ensure follow-up care through our public sector clinics will also be ensured so the question of records now so even for after treatment for follow-up visits people will be able to get a record of whatever procedures they've done absolutely they'll get a referral with exactly what was done and what the follow-up care should be for everybody who gets surgery on the ship now for people who want to walk in and I want to use the walk-in because we'll talk about the waiting list of the nationalists in a moment so people walking in what do they need to bring with them the critical thing do they need to have perhaps a medical history with them is that important for the clinics which we'll be having on the ground within the communities what we advise is that if you and elderly person that you come in with somebody with you to provide support so that for explanations as well for any extra information if you have your i know in the communities a lot of our patients have their little doctor's book it would be good to bring this so the physicians can see what medication you want what your past history whatever information you have on medication that you're taking or surgeries that you've had it would be good to walk in with that if you don't and you just come in for a checkup that's also fine you can just come in you can just walk in and then that's also let's go to the phone night and say good afternoon thank you so much for calling you in focus with us go ahead hi good morning i'm just calling to find out um some of you find a problem how do i do it possible that i see a person with doctor today okay if you're looking to get seen on the humanitarian at the humanitarian visit there'll be orthopedic specialists at the clinic so you would just need to come in any of the days from the 25th to the 30th of september and you'll be seen by the orthopedic um specialists um any tests after they review you if they need to to get tests done you then be referred to the ship because on the ship they'll be doing diagnostics which include the city scans ultrasounds x-ray echocardiogram laparoscopy and also blood testing if for persons who need it so you would just need to come in on one of those days to see the specialist at the walk-in clinic and you'll be seen you still there corner okay so i think that answered her question uh so let's look at what's happening from the what they call the national waiting list because we heard that a lot of lobby will not show what is that okay um on the ship minor surgical procedures will be done by the us teams in collaboration with our surgical teams they'll be and for you to get surgery done on the ship this is where we need a referral for your physician because as you would imagine those procedures would need to be scheduled so persons who are on the list or need to do any minor surgical procedures and awaiting we are aware of the bed situation at victoria hospital we have persons who've been waiting a while to get the procedure done so it will also assist within that week for persons who've been waiting a while to get a procedure um the procedures that are possible to be done include oftalmology general surgery including hernia repair urological um procedures will also be available orthopedic surgery as needed maxillofacial surgery will also be available minor plastic surgery won't care will also be available so persons who need care under some of those and other minor procedures what you would need to get from your physician is a referral note so that we can because i would need to send that to the team from before so we can plan and schedule persons on different days for the surgery so this is and so that they can know what they do right and we can give them a time to come in and so we need to schedule the surgeries there's a capacity of a hundred bed admission to us during the visit with 30 icu beds as needed so this is where we need a referral for for the surgery because this needs to be planned we also need a referral for the diagnostics like persons who've been waiting to do a CT scan and want to get one done we just need the indication from your doctor for the for the CT scan so that we can schedule you on a day to get it done as well but all of the others are walking you just come in with no you don't need to come to the ministry you don't need to call when the clinics are open you just walk in as needed oh let's just ask since it's going to be that accessible when you reach a cut off point for a particular date are the persons who are there they are they carried over or do you still have to come the next day and see if you can get on or what would their names still be taken and have them schedule yeah well we are looking at that because that's one of the things we've asked them based on their other visits based on the numbers because what they were indicating if they notice there the numbers are very big and it's getting to a certain time then those persons will need to come in the following day to get in and some level of preference we may need to arrange to to give but we will see we'll see how it works you know to see how we because we want as many people who want to get care that they can can access the services how many of our local physicians have reached out to your office to participate in this mission I'm trying to remember the numbers for the ship I can't remember the numbers I don't want to give an erroneous but in the clinics on the ground our district medical officers and public health nursing supervisors will will also be there I'm asking because you know we have our two languages in St. Dushan and that is very important and that's for the visiting doctors and they have to deal with our accrual speakers yes we've taken that into consideration so that is why a lot of our nurses will be will be there for persons who don't understand English and we want to make sure it's very clear the communication because a lot of the times our patients may not fully understand what is being said so that is why we it is so important to have the the local collaboration on the ground now are you confident that there will be sufficient time given to patients for them you know maybe to explain what their their ailments are because some things are not always you know exposed as you know as as a doctor you know maybe someone can walk you because they have a broken leg but there are people who need to explain how they feel they may not be able to find out the words for to express so how much time is being given to our patients I do not know what the allotted time per patient is at that point we will be having a further planning meeting in a couple of weeks with the US team to to see if but I don't think it will be everybody gets a set time and then move on I think it will be based on the needs some persons will clearly need to have a longer consultation time than others seeing that this visit will ease a lot of pressure on our existing health facilities and care what what what the fact that the number of your personnel be assisted but that impact on the operations of the local facilities well we because we'll be pulling staff from some of our primary care facilities we think that we will have less staff at some of the facilities during that week but we are hoping that it does not affect the quality of care that we give nonetheless and but what is some of the because we have that one clinic at okay EU does not mean the other functions at okay you would would be compromised in any way or no they'll be using a portion of okay you does not presently be in use for the services that have moved so it will not affect what is presently there and looking at the the the dynamics of our local physicians working alongside these well highly qualified we've been told when people coming in the exchange of knowledge how do you see that as being something that would be beneficial for our community I think we have a lot to gain not only during the period that they will be here because I'm I'm presently speaking about the services that will be available during the period but there'll be a lot more networking happening they also have teams that are involved in in vector control in health education so they will be providing support not only during that period but in terms of strengthening some of our other public health systems afterwards we are looking forward to continuing the collaboration with them all right for that I'm sure there'll be some higher level of discussion too maybe not just with all the physicians the local and those who are coming in but also at levels probably like yours and and from the ministry as well is there some sort of contingency for that to happen yes we have already started that discussion in terms of capacity building for us here on island and I'm a spotter of their mission usually when they leave they donate to where they look to see where the gaps are and they also donate from equipment to medication or whatever we need they would provide donations and support to to to the health sector we are quite pleased to to get the opportunity this year to be as part of the humanitarian mission which like I said this is their seventh mission to the region and I think it's a good opportunity for us can you qualify for us the importance to not just the medical community but to St. Ocean's given where we are at with our old health care system we are really on the cusp of of the ok eu opening lots of work being done with St. Jude so filling in the gap you alluded to it earlier but to really contextualize for us for people who have been waiting for certain services for a long time those who aren't able to afford and we know that's what a lot of people say I can't afford to go to the doctor because I don't want to have to deal with bills so qualify for us the importance of that visit but before we do that we want to go to the phone nights and say thank you for calling in what's your question thank you she said she's a registered nurse we've already submitted the lists and got authorization for the persons will be working with the surgical team on the boat on the ship but in terms of the community clinics you should still contact me to see if you really want to get on I could see how we try to facilitate that process for you but we will be using I mean we will welcome other nurses within the the community clinics you want to give her that do you know how to contact Dr. George do you know how to make contact with her would you like her to give that information okay so give her the number that she can contact you as 4685310 so just call me and then we'll see how we try to get you in although it's late but we'll see what we can do don't worry we put it in a good word for you please because it's great that we have someone calling into that volunteer I love that sort of spirit yes absolutely absolutely thank you so much any other questions thank you so much yes bye bye so it sounds very young and energetic there that's why you must take so we can have that transfer of knowledge happening and experience so that seems to just to qualify for us what what it means for us to have that for our synductions our health system is going through a transitioning period at that time with what's happening with the hospitals with us in the process of strengthening our primary care care systems so I think we know of some of the limitations that exist within the public sector especially when it comes to IK and dentistry in terms of us having the capacity to deal with a lot of the persons who need care so I think this is an opportunity for persons who have been waiting to get their eyes checked or waiting to get some dental procedures or want another opinion need to get some diagnostic tests done or you've been on a waiting list because of the bed situation you can't get on to to do your procedure I think it is an opportunity for us to try to get as many of those done now before the transition the move because we in the process of moving into the to the new hospital so I think it's an excellent opportunity for us yes I think we think so too we're just about to close upon a program so I'd like to get Monty to give some closing remarks and some general comments on what he spoke about in what his area specialty and the SMART facilities that we set up on Dr. George will also give us some closing comments before you wrap up on the program okay well thanks for having me on the show so in focus for the SMART health facilities I mean it's not in all the areas as yet we'll be coming to all the health care facilities so persons may see your community getting renovated and they say when when we're going to get renovated so basically for the SMART health facilities we're trying to stay safe green smart so we'll get to all the facilities eventually a little patience we're working with people from the community we're going to be doing surveys so we ask persons to assist us when we come to you and ask you what do you think of a health facility don't take it in their own context and give us the assistance that we need because we have to go you know and ask permission when they defer your clinic to somewhere else don't be upset because of the renovation we need that kind of cooperation from the public that's a big aspect for us sometimes you want to close down to renovate the public gets angry and say well you know we we do have no health center but we try to keep the time for the construction as short as possible we're looking at three months so cooperative first give us a chance for us to give you a new facility a SMART facility so work with us with the ministry of health let us give you a better facility better care give us that opportunity thank you Mr. Manuel engineer and ministry of health and wellness and Dr. George we really thank you for giving us such a great look and in detail on the visit of the US neighborhood your closing remarks um I just want to reiterate that the the clinics and the the services will be available from the 25th to the 30th of September we will be providing more information as it gets closer to the time and that we urge persons who need care to take advantage of the of the services that will be available and we we open to persons who have questions or queries or concerns that we continue working with the public to ensure that everything goes safely listen I know a lot of your friends must be excited about this initiative I've heard absolutely asked me questions about it I'm sure you've been getting these inquiries as well well and you know that I'm always loudest I'm a big trollied of anything good so all I say is people the ship is coming that's it the ship is coming I'll be there will you be there yes for sure I really like to encourage other solutions to come out and take an opportunity so this one is smart and we got comfortable as well yes and I couldn't have been better today yes so you're looking forward to the comfort I know that we're going to ask some smart health facilities well this has been in focus I would like to thank Mr. Monty manually engineering the ministry of health and wellness and Dr. Sharon Belmar George who's medical officer of health here in St. Lucia we'd like to thank all of you on behalf of all of us here at the government information service and national television network or technical crew or background staff and support staff on behalf of my co-host Alyssa Joseph I'm Ryan O'Brien saying goodbye for now