Telemedicine to be introduced at the Milton Cato Memorial

When telemedicine is introduced at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, consultants in this country would be able to consult with persons in other countries as to how to undertake different medical procedures.{{more}}

Speaking at a press conference recently, President of the International Hospital for Children (IHC) Susan Rickman said that the telemedicine initiative will be introduced at the hospital in the next six months.

Hospital Administrator Fitz Jones said although this is the first time that telemedicine will be used at the hospital, it has been available in the country since 2000 when it was first introduced by Dr. Ambrose.

“Given the human resources that we have, the hospital will continue to be on board with the concept because this is one of the ways in which you would be able to deliver a better quality health care to people in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Jones told the media.

“The consultant in Kingstown can actually be seeing what is happening at the Union Island Health Centre to a patient and giving the doctor there directions in terms of what needs to be done,” Jones illustrated.

Speaking with SEARCHLIGHT, pioneer of telemedicine project Dr. Ambrose said that the technology has been available at the Caribbean Medical Imagining Center since 2000. She said that we do not have a brain surgeon here, but they are able to do a CT scan and send it to a brain surgeon in other countries.

Although an exact cost of the programme was not given, Jones told SEARCHLIGHT that it is a joint venture with the IHC, which is assisting them in setting up the programme to see what direction it would take. This system will also allow for teleconferences, training of staff, video conferences among others.(SB)