Sister Florence O'Conner (left) checks the blood pressure of Eric Mason (seated). Looking on are (from left) Dionne Mason Gordon; Beulah Stevens, chief executive officer of Kingston Public Hospital; Dr Angella Mattis, consultant ophthalmologist; Mark Martin, regional director, South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA); Lyttleton Shirley, board chairman, SERHA; Matron Marlene Brown Smith, deputy director of Nursing Services; and Sister Leonora Thompson. - CONTRIBUTED
Nuttall to host fund-raising road race and [color:5e54=blue !important][color:5e54=blue !important]health fair
Nuttall Memorial Hospital in association with WATA will be hosting a 5K Road Race and Health Fair on Saturday, May 11, as part of its two-year $250 million fund-raising efforts. The proceeds will be used to refurbish and equip the 90-year-old hospital's six-bedroom ward, the Gunter Wing, and the eight-bed Intensive Care Unit.
This renovation forms a part of the institution's overall five-year redevelopment plan to completely refurbish the [color:5e54=blue !important][color:5e54=blue !important]medical facility.
According to Harvey Levers, chief executive officer, there is a need for private care as a viable option for much of Jamaica's population.
"Private hospitals and Nuttall in particular continue to serve a large segment of the population. This segment could not be easily accommodated within the already over-burdened public system, and a choice of acceptable private healthcare is therefore needed as an option here in Jamaica," he said.
[color:5e54=blue !important][color:5e54=blue !important]Patient donates medical equipment to KPH
Patient of the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), Eric Mason, and his daughter, Dionne Mason Gordon donated four blood-pressure machines and two stethoscopes valued at $40,000 to the ophthalmology department last week.
Lyttleton Shirley, board chairman for the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), which operates the KPH, said he was heartened by the noble donation.
"What you have done is to extend the hand of help and of care not only for yourselves, but for other patients who will come to KPH," Shirley told the donors.
Cancer rate 15% higher than normal for 9/11 responders study
A new study has found that the cancer rate among 9/11 responders is higher than normal. The study, done by Mount Sinai Hospital's World Trade Center Health Program, revealed that cancer among the responders to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States is 15 per cent higher than among people not exposed to the Ground Zero toxins.
Researchers said the increase was seen primarily in three types of the disease: thyroid, prostate and blood cancers, such as leukaemia and [color:5e54=blue !important][color:5e54=blue !important]lymphoma.
The researchers analysing data from 20,984 participants in the WTC Health Program from 2001 to 2008 found 575 cases of cancer, compared with the 499 epidemiologists expected to see in the general population for that size sample.