Director of Medical Services in Anguilla, Dr. Kennedy Simmonds, has revealed plans for the delivery of more local care at the Princess Alexandra Hospital for diabetic patients requiring insulin.

Dr. Simmonds delivering address

He was at the time thanking the Bassett Healthcare Group in the United States for conducting training in Laparoscopic Surgery in Anguilla, leading to the performance of procedures on seven patients by local doctors, and for donating operative equipment to the hospital at a cost of US$65,000.
“In a few weeks another member of the Bassett Healthcare Group will be in Anguilla to assist us in establishing arterial venous access for patients for dialysis,” he told the closing ceremony and press conference last week. “At this time we usually send the patients for dialysis abroad to have the access established so that they can be hooked up to the dialysis machines.”

Dr. Simmonds went on: “Dialysis is an area in which Anguilla has moved ahead and has pioneered within the smaller territories of the Caribbean. I think that we should all be very proud of the dialysis programme we have here and it is one of the programmes we must do everything in our power to keep and improve. I think being able to establish the access in the patients not only will save them in terms of cost, and certain problems which we have had when they do abroad, but it establishes even in a stronger way Anguilla as a centre for the care of dialysis patients.”

Referring to the dialysis treatment provided to Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming (who is now functioning well having been the recipient of a kidney transplant), Dr. Simmonds said: “In Anguilla dialysis has very special meaning. It is because of this that the outstanding leadership with which the island has been taken forward is able to continue with the same vigour that it has in the past.”

The Director of Medical Services stated that Home Health Care was another area being looked into as it was well needed in Anguilla. “I think with the leadership the Health Authority has been providing it is important for us to get the message across to the people of Anguilla that health care is on the move. We sometimes get so much of the negativity and some people do not often hear about the positive things that are happening in Anguilla. I assure you that exciting and positive things are happening.”

Dr. Simmonds acknowledged that it was the interaction between Chairman of the Health Authority, Dr. Franklyn Lloyd and Tom Wright, a Board Member of SUNY Cobleskill, which had resulted in the Bassett Healthcare and Anguilla Partnership getting off the ground and moving. “I am just happy to have been associated with it,” he added.

| Printer-friendly page | Send this article to a friend |

World News