From left, Dr. Sharda Baboe (St. Eustatius Public Health Department), Dr. Gerwin Schobbe and Gregory Melfor (St. Eustatius Public Health Department), Beverly Woodley (St. Eustatius Red Cross), Jacco Vaders (Mental Health Caribbean), Mervyn Stegers (Deputy Government Commissioner), Carol Jack-Roosberg (Director of the Directorate of Society and Welfare), and Dr. Gerard Berkel (Director of the St. Eustatius Healthcare Foundation).
ST. EUSTATIUS–Various health organizations in St. Eustatius signed a covenant last week pertaining to the organisation of all the medical forces on the island during any disaster. The organizations in the covenant are Queen Beatrix Medical Centre, St. Eustatius Public Health Department, Red Cross, Mental Health Caribbean. Community Health Care will also be organized within the covenant.
The covenant is a platform which will work independently from and parallel to the Disaster Committee, Dr. Gerwin Schobbe of the St. Eustatius Public Health Department explained.
The hospital and medical services are also represented in the Disaster Committee. “We have been working together all of the time, but now we are making it more formal.”
The covenant will be organizing everything that has to do with medical services in a disaster, such as flying out persons in a medical disaster, running the hurricane shelter, making sure the hospital has the capacity to take care of those who are wounded and get them flown out on time.
The Red Cross is part of the overall organization taking care of people who are wounded on the scene. They are not fully medical staff, Schobbe said, but Red Cross volunteers will be assisting medical forces in the field whenever a disaster happens.
“The Red Cross is currently building up their own capacity so that they can do much, much more as the time goes along,” according to Schobbe.
Director of the Directorate of Society and Welfare Carol Jack-Roosberg is the head of the covenant. “It is almost historic, because over the years as organizations we have been working together, certainly where it has to do in the field of emergencies and medical relief,” she said.
The covenant gives an outline of how the organizations will work together. “We know that the work we have done in the past has been good work, but there is always room for improvement, and this is the first step in that improvement,” said Jack-Roosberg.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/77791-health-organizations-sign-disaster-response-covenant
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