KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, March 19, IWN — Member of Parliament for the Northern Grenadines, Dr. Godwin Friday, says he hopes the opening of the medial centre in Bequia will inspire better attitudes to health among residence of the island.
He told a handing over ceremony in Bequia on Monday he hopes that the facility delivers what its promises.
“Sometimes we have a building or some new project which can transcend just the physical structure itself, in the sense that it create a new hope, a new sense of commitment on the part of the people who use it, the people who function here as professional.
“And it is my fervent wish that this facility will inspire the staff, the health care professionals who deliver the service here in Bequia, to do their very best not just to keep the building pretty but to serve the people who it is intended to serve. Ultimately, what matters, is the delivery of care to the community and that is what the building is here for.”
Friday appealed to users of the facility to understand it is a public facility and encouraged them to care for it for their benefit and use by others in the future.
He further said he hopes that the building will inspire residents to think of their own health as their primary responsibility.
“So I am hoping that it (the centre) will also help us to reorient our thinking towards healthcare as a continuing exercise. Not that you take a pill when you are sick or you see the doctor when you have a pain but that you make the choices in your life that will help to forestall or prevent those things form developing too soon or too often.”
He said some persons have a fatalistic attitude towards being sick, with people saying everyone has to die at some time.
“That is true, but why hasten it? And Why not … also do the things that will help us to have a better quality of life? And good health is an essential part of that.
“So the small choices that we make with respect to the consumption of alcohol, smoking, exercise, our diet, all of those things are common sense and useful things that we don’t practice.
“So, when we come to a function like this and we see the promise of a facility like this, hopefully, it inspires us to sort of recommit ourselves to do the right things for our body, which, after all, is the temple,” Friday said.