Director of the Pan American Health Association (PAHO), Dr. Clarissa Etienne has deemed the Dominica China Friendship Hospital as a facility that Dominicans should be proud of.
The hospital, which is still under construction, boasts a number of new services as well as a number of new facilities. The major project is being financed by the Government of the People’ Republic of China and is expected to be completed in 2022.
The PAHO Director along with other hospital officials toured the completed facilities on Monday, November 15, 2021.
Dr. Etienne stated that many of the facilities that are currently being offered at the hospital, as well as those which will be offered upon completion of the hospital cannot be found anywhere else in the Caribbean.
“This is the best kept secret in Dominica in terms of the development that has occurred in this facility and the facilities that are available. I am not sure how much we have introduced the facility and the services that are available. These are world class services, some of which are not available in the rest of the OECS and even the wider Caribbean in terms of the public health sector,” Dr. Etienne explained.
The Director explained that she has been wholly impressed by the significant improvements and upgrades in the services being offered at the DCFH.
“Some of what I have seen compares to the services in highly developed countries. I really was significantly impressed by all the departments that I have seen. Certainly the Ophthalmology Department and the ICU Facilities, the laboratory, the A&E department; and I am seeing it through the eyes of someone who knows what was there before and it is a significant comparison,” Dr. Etienne noted.
Dr. Etienne added that when complete, the DCFH will bring in revenue as citizens of other Caribbean countries will be able to visit Dominica to access medical services.
“Frankly Dominica should be proud that we can become a centre of excellence not just for the OECS but also for many countries in the Caribbean. Becoming a centre of excellence is also a way to access an increase in financial resources, but it is also a sense of pride. And a sense of pride is important; that we can be a centre of excellence and then we can open our doors so that other countries in the OECS and beyond can come here; that our Dominicans in the diaspora could feel confident to return home knowing that there is access to the services that they use wherever they are,” Dr. Etienne went on to say.