Hospital gets new £4,000 ‘heart machine’

Senior Engineering Assistant at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, MCMH, Garfield Henderson is of the view that the General Hospital has equipment functioning at a level which he believes is able to offer the necessary services.

Henderson however pointed out that this does not mean that the medical facility would not welcome additional equipment, but said that there must be the appropriate medical staff to operate the equipment.{{more}}

In an interview with the Searchlight Newspaper, the senior engineering assistant explained, “Having for an example a dialysis machine would be pointless and would not solve the problem immediately because we would need a department with a doctor and nurses in that specialized area to care for patients.”

Henderson immediately pointed out that the MCMH could however use more general machinery such as ventilators, anesthetic machines, BT apparatuses and monitors to be more efficient in

the various departments at the medical facility.

He complained that often when the MCMH received donated equipment from overseas hospitals it was either because the equipment was not functioning properly or because the hospitals were trying to make room for newer models and discarded the outdated versions by donating them to the MCMH.

Henderson noted that as a third world developing country they are trying to deliver professional healthcare and needed to have the support of the public not just in the form of paying their medical bills but also by showing respect for the medical practitioners who try their best in adverse conditions.

The senior engineering assistant at the MCMH lamented, “Patients and relatives would often insult medical staff and this doesn’t set the appropriate environment for good healthcare. There must be a healthy respect between both staff and patients of the hospital so that everything can run efficiently.”

On Thursday, October 5, Henderson received a donation of a brand new electrocardiogram machine valued at some 4,000 pounds sterling from the Vincentian Hospital Appeal Fund based in Oxford, England.

He expressed gratitude to the 10-year-old UK based organization, noting that it was not often that a brand new piece of equipment was donated.