Medical training at Scarborough hospital

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

CHIEF SECRETARY Kelvin Charles has described the launch of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Faculty of Medical Sciences clinical clerkship programme to Tobago as a “bold and progressive initiative.”

Speaking during the formal launch at the Scarborough General Hospital on Friday, Charles said the start of the programme was no fluke and "without a vision, the people will perish."

He said, “It was in of November 2018 that the Executive Council confirmed a decision to designate the Scarborough General Hospital as a post graduate teaching hospital. Prior to that, I am advised that for a number of years, over a decade, that the Ministry of Health had recognised the Scarborough General Hospital as a suitable facility to provide internship training for doctors possessing provisional registration from the Medical Board of TT.

“Approximately three years ago, UWI personnel did tour these facilities and it was agreed that the lecture facilities, lecture rooms and IT infrastructure were adequate, however it was felt that it was necessary to establish a task force to treat with the modalities and the specifics and getting to the point where we are today.”

According to Charles, another exciting chapter has been written at the hospital that would assist with the training of medical students and ultimately improve the health sector on the island.

“Today represents in very significant terms, the realisation of a vision and it does make a very powerful statement that we are in the business of improving our healthcare situation in TT.”

Charles paid tribute to the former health secretary Dr Agatha Carrington, who was present, commending her for her stewardship over the three years she served.

Through this launch, clinical teaching in four specialities will now be done at the Scarborough General Hospital for the very first time for UWI medical students. UWI senior lecturer in psychiatry and head of the Department of Clinical Medical Sciences, Dr Nelleen Baboolal said that the story of the faculty coming to Tobago started approximately three years ago when Professor Terence Seemungal (UWI Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences) visited Tobago to meet with stakeholders to “actually look at the possibility of our UWI students actually coming to the Tobago Regional Health Authority/ Scarborough Hospital to do rotations and clerkships.”

She said “over the past three years, work has been going on between the university and also the TRHA (Tobago Regional Health Authority) and one year ago, we met with Dr (Agatha) Carrington and we actually formulated a plan to execute and initiate.”

The programme is expected to begin in April 2020 and according to Baboolal, the launch of the teaching programme represents an expansion of UWI’s medical training.

“It is the first time the hospital is been used for undergraduate training but going forward we expect to also have post graduate students trained at your facility.

“It’s a five-year medical training programme and the students that are being trained at the Scarborough facility are year four students. They would spend part of their rotation in Trinidad and part in Tobago, and there are four areas that we’re training people in in Tobago: adult medicine, paediatrics or child health, psychiatry and general surgery,” she said.

Baboolal said the initiative is “just an extension of our programme.”

“It’s so that the students can get a different experience in a different facility, and it will actually be good for the students from Tobago who are in Trinidad, so they can come home for a short while.

“We utilise the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, the Port of Spain General Hospital, San Fernando Teaching Hospital and the Sangre Grande Hospital. So, this is the fifth hospital that we are going to be utilising…so students are rotated through the facilities and gain their training and hands-on experience at these facilities,” she said.

At any given time, 12 students would be trained at the facility, with three in each speciality.

“How it would work, students would come to Tobago for a three-week period, spending the three weeks in the speciality of choice. After that three weeks, another group of students will rotate into the specialities and the three who have completed, would go back to Trinidad.”