WITH more than 90 major surgeries done weekly at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), there is significant need for diathermy machines, which are critical in surgical procedures as they are used in the dissection of body tissues in most surgical operations and help to reduce excessive bleeding.

The Joan Duncan Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the JMMB Group, responded to this need by donating $1.65 million to the UHWI to purchase a mobile state-of-the-art diathermy machine.

Dr Guyan Arscott, consultant surgeon, Department of Surgery at UHWI, underscored the importance of the diathermy machine in the treatment of surgical patients at the hospital, noting: “It decreases the morbidity rate of patients undergoing surgery and therefore reduces the turnover time between procedures.”

Dr Arscott noted that the equipment will not only redound to the benefit of the patients, but also in the training of medical residents during surgical procedures. “As the main teaching hospital in Jamaica, this donation will serve to enhance the teaching capacity of the UHWI by exposing students to the necessary equipment that will be used in surgical procedures during the training period of their programme,” added Dr Arscott.

In keeping with the Foundation’s mandate to impact change in Jamaica and to provide capacity strengthening in institutions, Patricia Sutherland, chair of the Joan Duncan Foundation, highlighted, “We are happy to support an institution like UHWI because we believe that with the necessary equipment, the expert medical team that we have locally can adequately provide our fellow Jamaicans with high quality, affordable health care that is world class.”

In her brief address at the hand-over ceremony held recently at the hospital, Sutherland highlighted that the donation was “also given in honour of Joan Duncan, her mother and founder of JMMB, who was also a beneficiary of the quality service offered by the hospital during her lifetime.”