A new Fluoroscopy Unit is now in service at the Bustamante Hospital for Children. Minister of Health, Dr. Christopher Tufton officially commissioned the Unit into service at a ceremony held on September 8, 2016, at the hospital. The new Unit which costs over Sixty-Eight Million Dollars ($68,581,880.00) will function dually as an x-ray as well as a fluoroscopy Unit and will reduce the processing time for x-rays from 90 to 15 minutes.
Dr. Tufton congratulated the South East Regional Health Authority and urged the team to continue making strides to improve the quality of healthcare that is offered to our young children.
“I want to congratulate the South East Regional Health Authority for making this a reality as this new unit will allow for critical procedures to be done right here at the Bustamante Hospital for Children without outsourcing and will indeed improve the level of services we provide to our children. I also want to make a strong appeal to the team to ensure that the Unit is properly taken care of and a maintenance schedule is in place”, Dr. Tufton said.
Critical procedures such as barium enema and Micturating Cystourethrogram (MCUG) which is useful to identify surgically correctable problems in the bladder can now be performed at the Bustamante Hospital for Children. These tests were previously outsourced.
Similarly, Minister Tufton congratulated the National Health Fund (NHF) for the tremendous support in providing the funds to purchase the Unit as well the significant increase in subsidies that will cover a range of illnesses for children.
The National Health Fund, which is an Agency of the Health Ministry, has increased its subsidies of up to 95% to cover medications as well as medical supplies and devices to children who are enrolled on the NHF Card Programme. The increase will benefit over 16,000 children who are currently registered and will cover illnesses such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, sickle cell, rheumatic fever, glaucoma and others.
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