Significant and aggressive initiatives being implemented in Region Four’s health care

Regional Health Officer (RHO) of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Region Four, Dr
Gavinash Persaud continues to implement significant and aggressive initiatives geared at
improving health care within Region Four. Speaking exclusively to www.aroundtheregions.com,
Dr Persaud who previously worked at GPHC disclosed that he has created a surveillance team.
This team he said seeks to address a number of issues, describing the work of the surveillance
team on both the East Coast and the East Bank as being very effective and efficient.
“I created a surveillance team that is very efficient. We have one locate on the East Bank and
another on the East Coast and these guys' responsibility is to inform our patients. The residents
of East Coast and East Bank are also informed timely as no longer do you have persons waiting
ten to twelve days to know what is happening. We address our positives as we give direction, we
let them know where they need to go to be retested, we provide relevant advice,” Dr Persaud
said.
Commenting on the work being done by the regional task force the Regional Health Officer
revealed that the meetings are being done virtually considering the enormous work that has to be
done by several of the task force members.
“We make decisions, we assess the situation on the ground and from there the team devise
measures on how we will deal with the situation,” he said.
Dr. Persaud noted that considering the current situation in St Cuthbert’s Mission, they are
considering setting up an isolation centre, which will see one of the schools in the community
being used for this. He however said that this is primarily geared at housing persons who are not
conforming themselves to home isolation measures.
“We are looking at that but I must say that it has a lot of logistics involved because if you take
people from that community and you tell them that you will be putting them into the  secondary
school, evidently you would need the police to guard them,” Dr Persaud said.
He added, “Secondary to that you have to feed these persons. These are some of the things that
we are currently assessing and while I will admit that we don’t have all of the expertise and all of
the answers, necessity is the mother of all inventions. As the situation arises, we are dealing with
them.”
The RHO reiterated that the task force cannot predict every situation but stressed that his team is
aggressive, determined and committed in addressing any and every situation.  He commended
the staff within the region, noting that thus far he has not encountered anyone unwilling to
support the regional vision and action plan. He said that all the employees thus far continue to be
cooperative and open to new initiatives. “I must say that I am generally pleased as I have not had
any disagreement with any of the employees or anyone refusing to support the vision that we are
working with so far. I must say that there has been no defiance from anyone as everyone seems
to be quite pleased, they are very cooperative thus far,” reassured.

The RHO declared that his only admonishment to all health care professionals within Region
Four is that they recognize that their roles and responsibilities are critically pivotal in continuing
to enhance health care to the residents of the region.
“I continue to remind them that we need to be punctual, we need to be courteous,  we need to
dress accordingly as our attire should be what is recommended as these things will help us in
achieving our goals,” he stated.