by Curlan Campbell, NOW Grenada
- Grenada’s Medical and Dental Council to be internationally accredited
- Opening of second phase of hospital project delayed
- Plans to upgrade Mt Gay Psychiatric Hospital
Minister for Health Nickolas Steele said that Grenada’s Medical and Dental Council will be internationally accredited by the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA), hopefully by December.
The NCFMEA is responsible for assessing and accrediting medical schools that are comparable to the standards used to accredit medical schools in the United States.
According to Steele, the government has already submitted a request to the United States-based committee within the US Department of Education for accreditation and is awaiting a favourable response. “We will get the final word from them probably by December. We expect everything to go smoothly with that and that will allow our medical and dental council to be not just the national accreditation body in Grenada, but to be recognised internationally, particularly in the US.”
Grenada’s Medical and Dental Council is the body responsible for issuing licences for medical practitioners in Grenada, and with the pending approval by the NCFMEA, will grant them the power to accredit Medical Educating schools. Last month Minister Steele, accompanied by members of the Medical and Dental Council travelled to Washington to submit their proposal to NCFMEA.
Minister Steele also informed the public that unforeseen circumstances have delayed the opening of the second phase of the hospital project, but has reassured that government is doing all within its power to fast track that process to ensure that the completion of the project can take place before Christmas. “I am hoping for Christmas for it to be open, there have been some delays and I am not happy with the delays and I don’t think that anyone should be. Our role is to drive that process forward as efficiently and effectively as possible so that it can be open as quickly as possible. We had some delays from the contractor and with electricity on site. As you may know, it is a complicated site to work on, the connecting corridor between the existing building and the new facility also had to be negotiated which needed the demolition of the kitchen and that had some complications with it… but we keep pushing ahead and making sure that we can get this open as quickly as possible.”
The completion of the second phase of the hospital project will see a new accident and emergency department, imaging department, administrative offices, out-patients services, chapel, laboratory and staff facilities.
There are also plans to upgrade Mt Gay Psychiatric Hospital which will involve the reconstruction of the Rathdune Unit at the General Hospital.
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