The Annotto Bay Hospital in St Mary welcomed its 2019/20 class of medical interns and senior house officers on July 8.

The newest additions to the hospital’s medical team will spend at least one year in rotations shadowing experienced doctors across a wide range of specialties, including: accident & emergency, obstetrics/maternity, medicine, paediatric, and surgery.

In welcoming the newest members to the hospital’s medical team Chief Executive Officer Dennis Morgan said, “We are privileged to have such a wonderful group of young doctors joining our team. I have no doubt they will gain invaluable medical experience from our team of highly qualified and knowledgeable doctors, while at the same time making worthwhile contributions to the delivery of quality health care to the people of Annotto Bay and surrounding communities in the Parish of St Mary and beyond.

“I am most excited about the opportunity to work alongside and learn from many of the facility’s skilled physicians, such as Drs Strachan and Jarrett in obstetrics, Drs Fraser and Curtis in surgery, and Dr Wilson in medicine,” said Dr Khadijah McPherson.

Morgan announced that the facility will be launching a mentoring programme in which new team members are paired with a senior consultant. The purpose of the programme is a way to offer support to mentees in their professional development,” he said.

The Annotto Bay Hospital, operating as a Type B medical facility, is one of four hospitals within the North East Regional Health Authority (NERHA) network and is the largest in St Mary. The institution was originally founded by a Scottish physician, Sir John Pringle in 1867.

It is a 117-bed capacity referral hospital serving a population of approximately 180,000 people drawn from the south-east St Mary and adjoining communities with more than 45 physicians and 260 nurses, technicians, and support staff providing quality health care and administrative support services across several firms.

The hospital has six wards: Female and Male Medical, Female and Male Surgical, Paediatric, and Obstetric/Maternity. Services offered include: accident and emergency (24 hours), surgery, radiology, pharmacy, clinical laboratory, and obstetric/maternity.

The hospital’s accident and emergency department sees more than 25,000 patients, 10,750 admissions, handles 45,000 outpatient treatments, delivered 1,100 babies, and performs over 1,100 surgeries annually.