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Health, Wellness, and Elderly Affairs Minister Moses Jn Baptiste has disclosed that the government is seeking to ensure the safety of healthcare workers amid a current violent crime wave.
“We are working with the administrations of St. Jude Hospital, the Soufriere Hospital, the Millennium Heights Medical Complex and so on to ensure not only that they get the resources that they need but also, that they are safe,” the Vieux Fort North MP disclosed.
“We will be speaking with them and also with the security services to ensure they are safe,” Jn Baptiste told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting.
Saint Lucia experienced a bloody weekend in which a man was shot dead in Soufriere and another sustained gunshot injuries.
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Another man was shot dead in Vieux Fort, and the OKEU treated 13 people injured in a shooting incident at Babonneau.
The Health Minister expressed concern over the significant impact of violent crime on the health sector.
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“This continuous upsurge in violent crime is impacting the health sector in a major way – supplies, human resources, and also the fatigue of our medical professionals. So this is another dimension which concerns me greatly. It concerns the government,” Jn Baptiste told reporters.
“For me the major concern is the pressure which is being placed on our doctors, our nurses, the janitors, the staff, the security personnel at our health facilities. Certainly, all of Saint Lucia, all of our energies have to be put into arresting this crime situation,” he stated.
At the same time, the Minister expressed gratitude to medical professionals for their sacrifice, especially at the weekend.
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