 The St. Jude Hospital recently received a donation of two significant medical equipment from the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, which is expected to strengthen the delivery of diagnostic tests in a laboratory at the hospital. The two medical equipment donated to the St. Jude Hospital are the hematology analyzer and the immunosay analyzer. Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Jenny Daniel says this donation signifies the continuation of the ministry's goal towards strengthening the delivery of health services in St. Lucia. We are purely aware at the Ministry of Health of the extreme significance of St. Jude as a national hospital within the south of the island and the need to ensure that the service provision is in tune with the health service delivery expectations at the hospital. So at the Ministry of Health, although we are basically a sister agency with oversight over delivery of health care and not necessarily directly involved with the health care in St. Jude, we recognize the need for us to contribute and to strengthen that sector in order to relieve pressures otherwise on our other areas within our other institutions within the health sector. Minister for Health, the Honorable Moses Jabatis says the ministry will continue working with the St. Jude Hospital and ensure that health services provided to the patients are improved. This hematology analyzer and the immunosay analyzer I am sure will cause our people to feel more confident in the health care service which will be provided to them. They know that we have challenges at the St. Jude Hospital but when they feel that every week, every month we are trying our very best to improve their circumstances, I know that the confidence will continue to grow in our system, in our doctors and in our our workers in general. Medical Director of the St. Jude Hospital Dr. Sebel Nitram James expressed immense gratitude to the Ministry of Health for the equipment and says this will assist them with meeting the required standards for accreditation on an international level. For quite some time, we have been working with frequent down times on our current hematology machine, leaving us unable to offer critical emergency labs to our clients. This machine will be doing our basic complete blood count with a five-part differential. The second machine is actually the most exciting one I must say, is our immunosay analyzer, excuse me, which we call the SNIVER MagLumi 800. It will permit us to upgrade some of the tests that we are currently offering but it also has the additional features of being able to offer a number of other tests that we were unable to process locally. The new medical equipment will allow the St. Jude Hospital to test for cancer markers and hormonal testing here in St. Louis. The two medical equipment donated to the St. Jude Hospital is valued at EC$155,000. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs, I am Fennel Neptune.