Business View Caribbean | Jan 2019

74 Hospital and its evolution? Sister Adesanya: “Victoria Hospital has been in existence for over 150 years. It was a colonial hospital built by the British Army when they were here. It was initially run by nuns, specifically for soldiers, and it evolved into the main public hospital on the island. Later, St. Jude’s Hospital was built, so the island had two hospitals. Victoria Hospital has been offering general services to the public for the entire time. It is a government- run hospital, which means it is funded by the government under the governance structure of the Ministry of the Public Service and the Ministry of Health. “In 1992, a major addition to the original colonial hospital was built by the French. It was a new wing created specifically for the obstetrical department. The rest of the building is basically the old structure with a few bits and pieces added. Victoria Hospital is the larger of the two public hospitals on the island, with 162 beds; St. Jude’s only has about 50 beds.We’re in the north, so we serve a bigger catchment population than the south, as well.” Calixte: “Victoria Hospital is a major employer in St. Lucia; we have about 520 employees on staff. In the case of our doctors, we don’t have a full medical school on the island.What we have are a few offshore universities, but the majority of our physicians go abroad to study. If you look at the physician mix we have in St. Lucia, at Victoria Hospital we have foreigners along with locals who studied abroad and have returned. Regarding the nurses, Victoria Hospital always had its own School of Nursing until 1988, when our school Ms. Brenda Calixte – Executive Director Sister Ruth Adesanya – Nursing Director