US Navy ship to deliver land-based medical mission, ship-based surgical mission

Wednesday, 18th September 2019

Services to be offered by the US Navy Ship Comfort during its October 05-10 visit to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis will be done in two phases – a land-based medical mission and a ship-based surgical mission – said the Honourable Senator Wendy Phipps, Minister of State with Responsibility for Health, at the Sitting of Parliament on Tuesday September 17. “The medical mission involves the provision of health care at the two following land based sites in St. Kitts only—The Antioch Baptist Church, Lime Kiln, on the grounds of that new facility, and second would be the St. Paul’s Community Center, St. Kitts.” She expounded on what would be occurring at the land based sites saying that the “medical portion of the mission will focus on preventive care, basic medical evaluation, dental screenings and optometry screenings and treatment.” The honourable minister also elaborated on the ship based surgical mission saying that “this involves the provision of surgical intervention and care onboard the ship to persons who have been diagnosed with a medical problem that requires surgery.” She highlighted that these persons must be referred to the hospital ship by either their attending local physician or a district medical officer based at the nearest health center. According to the Barbados US Embassy, the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) will offer free medical services in Grenada, Saint Lucia, and St. Kitts and Nevis from September 15-20, September 25-30 and October 5-10 respectively. The ship will conduct approximately 100 onboard surgeries, provide basic medical services at two medical walk-in sites, as well as host health fairs/community outreach to address various public health topics in each of the countries it visits.