Grenadines residents still facing medevac challenges

Residents of the Southern Grenadines are still facing grave challenges reaching Kingstown for emergency healthcare, although the government bought a Coast Guard vessel for medevac purposes in October 2020.

“… anytime you have an emergency, it seems as if you have to tell your family or your loved ones make up your mind to dead because this government don’t care to heck about you,” Southern Grenadines MP, Terrance Ollivierre said while campaigning in Canouan recently.

“Imagine you got a medevac. You paraded it all up and down this country. But when it’s time for the medevac to carry people to St. Vincent, the door that you had to go through, it can’t go through there, you’re facing difficulty,” he said.

On Oct. 15, 2020, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who is also minister of national security, handed over to the SVG Coast Guard, the 52-foot-long, 16-foot-beam boat — “SVG 05 –Balliceaux” — which was obtained at a cost of  EC$4.3 million to transport ill persons throughout the archipelago.

However, in December 2023, Gonsalves, responding in Parliament to a question from Ollivierre, said the door of the vessel was too small for certain types of medical evacuations.

Ollivierre told constituents in Canouan that he did not know where the vessel was and that regular Coast Guard vessels continue to be used for medical evacuations.

He said that even medical professionals complain about travelling to St. Vincent on board these vessels during emergencies.

“I must commend the Coast Guard men who come every time they’re called. But I’m saying to this government that … the small Coast Guard is inadequate to take our sick people to mainland,” he said.

Ollivierre said that West Kingstown MP Daniel Cummings, the NDP’s spokesperson on health matters, has said that an NDP government will acquire a helicopter for medical evacuation in the multi-island nation.

“… so when you leave here, you land straight at the hospital in order to seek medical care,” Ollivierre said.

He said that in instances where the patient cannot fly, “then we will make sure that you have the appropriate boat to transport you to the mainland, outfitted with all the medical equipment that are needed to make sure that our people are in good hands. The doctors and the nurse wouldn’t be afraid…”

The Unity Labour Party is building a US$80 million acute referral hospital in Arnos Vale, the design of which includes a helipad.

Ollivierre said that an NDP administration would address the issue of the patient having to bear the cost of lodging for medical personnel who accompany them from the Grenadines to St. Vincent in emergency situations.

“That is wickedness; that is the height of wickedness. And under the New Democratic Party, we used to assist with the payment of these fees. And we will make sure that the New Democratic Party brings relief to our citizens when they are suffering like that.”

The MP said that the government had said since 2021 that it would install containerised labs to conduct blood tests in Canouan.

He said that sometimes when blood is sent on a ferry or plane to Kingstown for analysis, “they forget it.

“When they forget it, you have to go back the next day and do the same thing again,” Ollivierre said, adding that he raised the issue in Parliament.

“So after complaining and answering the question in Parliament, they said in the 2021 budget that they were going to put containers in Canouan and Union Island and trained persons to do the blood work.

“Well, the containers were rest there and that is all that happened; empty containers and nothing was done to assist the people of Canouan.”

Ollivierre, however, said an NDP government “will make sure that you have proper health care in these islands to take care of our needs”.

Ollivierre also addressed the issue of potable water in the Grenadines – which has no rivers or streams, and most of the water is harvested from the rain and stored in tanks.

The MP said he had spoken to Cummings — who is also a former manager of the Central Water and Sewerage Authority— telling him that the cisterns on the Grenadine islands must be cleaned.

“… and there must be a way of linking it to CWSA, providing employment,” Olliverre said.

“Apart from that, we also have to implement a desalination plant, put it on a hill, gravity feed the water to people’s homes so you don’t have to go wait on no truck to bring no water for you [during the dry season],” Ollivierre said.

“There’ll be pipeline running to your homes to cater to your needs. And that is what we want to do, make sure that you have water coming to your homes.”