 The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs has engaged the services of Merovic Consulting to assist in the development of a referral system in healthcare facilities. Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belma George spoke on the level of support that Merovic Consulting will be providing to ensure this initiative is a success. They will be working with our technical officers within the Ministry of Health, our other stakeholders like the fire service, the private healthcare sectors, our patients who are very important stakeholders in the process will also be consulted on how the system works for them and what they would like to see as well. They are very important stakeholders in how we improve on the referral process. So during the assessment period they'll be looking at what presently exists in our system. They'll be doing a lot of visits of our various healthcare programs as well and we'll be looking at various ways, looking at the various gaps, ensuring that we can put a system in place so that we can have an integrated health system. Dr Sharon Belma George says this initiative is extremely important given the gaps identified in the healthcare system. We note the deficiency in the transfer of patient care from one sector to the other. For example our primary care unit which is our wellness centers to the secondary care which is the hospitals. So we note when patients are transferred for care, there isn't that integration of care which isn't necessary and when patients are transferred back into our primary care sector. We also see it when patients access care with the private sector and the public sector. Now that affects the quality of care that the patient receives as the healthcare provider is not fully informed of what care, what management that they received when they get care out of one sector or not. Minister for Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, the Honourable Moses Jabhatis, emphasised on the need to establish a referral mechanism as to ensure quality healthcare is delivered to clients. When patients present at our primary care facilities like our health and wellness centers and they see our medical professionals, it is very key for us to be able to determine where these patients are referred to, who they are referred to for additional care or for specialized care and why these patients are being referred. We also need to be able to track our patients throughout the healthcare system in St Lucia. When they go to the primary healthcare facilities, what kind of advice are the medical professionals given to them and are they taking that advice? Are they following up with the referral and how do we tie all of this into our databases in St Lucia, whether it be at the hospitals, at the OKEU or St Jude Hospital or at our primary healthcare facilities like our health and wellness centers. The assessment activity with Merovic Consulting included focus groups discussions, visits to various healthcare facilities and stakeholder meetings to name a few. Reporting from the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Elderly Affairs, I am Fynnell Neptune.