By Kerri Gooding
Barbados has received high accolades for its work in the area of ophthalmology.
Furthermore, as a country with modernised facilities for eye care, the Minister of Health believes this can be one area exploited in medical tourism.
He said, “I was speaking only recently to the question of medical tourism for instance, and this is a potential which we want to take greater advantage of, and I would believe that eye surgery is an area where we can also look at developing a reasonable medical tourism business for Barbados.”
At the fourth Annual Ophthalmology Subspecialty Conference held at Radisson Aquatica, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and Ophthalmologist Dr. Shaun Singer said, “From what I understand the technology here is pretty good. I have had the opportunity to interact with some of my Caribbean colleagues and it sounds like they are really quite advance in many ways.”
Against this background, Minister Boyce said, “I think that the Ministry of Health really looks forward to partnering with you, the professionals, in bringing this regional business to our shores. And if there is anything at all that we can do at the Ministry to facilitate this activity, well then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.”
He asserted that as “the Lion’s Eye Care Centre, which is equipped with ultra-modern state-of-the-art ophthalmology equipment to support the various ophthalmologic interventions”, becomes fully operational, the entire Caribbean can be a target market.
Furthermore, he promised that the other two Eye Theatres in the suite of three, located upstairs in the Centre, will be operational by the end of the financial year.
The Minister also stressed that, “The full operation of the three theatres can provide greater capacity and even attract more clients from within the Caribbean region enhancing opportunities for significant revenue collection at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.”
He told the ophthalmologists and optometrists from across the region, Amsterdam, Canada and the United States, “certainly we look forward to you joining with us and really rolling out many, many opportunities like this for Barbados”.
Furthermore, Boyce incentivised the practitioners to work with the ministeries, not only the Health Ministry, but others impacted such as the Ministry of Finance, stating, “I know we like to access duty-free status on a lot of our expensive equipment, and these things can be worked on, as we try to develop this business in Barbados and add to our potential for earning very much needed foreign exchange.”
Additionally, on the local front, he said, “These theatres will substantially reduce the current waiting lists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for eye surgery.”
source: http://www.barbadosadvocate.com / The Barbados Advocate / Home> Top News> Local / by Kerri Gooding / February 24th, 2014
