PoS councillors applauded for health fair

RESIDENTS of east Port of Spain applauded the city corporation and the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) for hosting a health and wellness fair on Sunday. When Newsday visited, residents had already started gathering at the Harlem Syncopators panyard, Quarry Street, PoS, for free medical screening.

One resident, who only gave her name as Roxanne, said she recently had some problems with her eyes and was glad the event was held in her area, because she has to wait until next year for an appointment at the PoS General Hospital.

She said it was her hope more programmes can be established within the community to help residents, especially the elderly.

“This is a great step the councillors and the NWRHA have taken. Most of the elderly in the back here don’t really have people to take them to clinic to receive health care. I think bringing the service to the people is a wonderful idea.”

Victor James, 68, said moving around is a challenge for him.

“Today I can safely say I’m going to check my prostate and do all the tests which are being offered. I normally suffer from high blood pressure and I am going to deal with that in a while. I only hope they can keep up with the initiative.”

While praising the corporation, German Reid also called on councillors to establish more programmes for the residents.

“It has been a long while since something like this has been done. We have a lot of young people in the community and I think more should be done to help the young ones to get them off the streets. I have brought my daughter with me this morning and we are going to partake in all the free testing we can get.”

Councillor Hillan Morean said the corporation, in conjunction with councillor Stephen Harper oc Belmont South, councillor for PoS East Dry River Clint Baptiste and the NWRHA came together to host the event. He said the fair is one of the corporation’s series of initiatives of social programmes being rolled out throughout the city.

“We are encouraging residents to be aware of their health and wellness for the Christmas season and we are focusing on general health and wellness.

We have prostate testing for men, blood sugar, eye testing and Pap smears for women.

“We want to thank the Harlem Syncopators’ management for allowing the corporation to use the facility as a venue, because the community does not have a community center to host any events.”

Comments

"PoS councillors applauded for health fair"

More in this section