Health Minister Moses Jn Baptiste has outlined an ambitious slate of healthcare priorities for Saint Lucia, with a renewed focus on nutrition policy and the full commissioning of St Jude Hospital expected to feature prominently in the upcoming budget cycle.
Speaking at a pre-Cabinet press conference on April 20, Baptiste pointed to recent expansions in healthcare services as evidence of the government’s broader push toward universal coverage.
“Just a few weeks ago, the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Nutrition added colorectal cancer screening at no cost for the people of Saint Lucia,” he said. “This is yet another service which has been added to the new universal health coverage programme.”
He added that efforts are also being made to improve service delivery across the system.
“We see increased efforts at our hospitals to improve quality, to cut down on waiting times at our accident and emergency departments, and to ensure that we invest in more systems which will require improved technology,” Baptiste noted.
Central to the Ministry’s agenda is a significant shift toward nutrition as a national priority, particularly in addressing non-communicable diseases.
“Nutrition will play a much bigger role in our ministry,” he said. “We are hoping to create a new discussion, a new debate on the value of nutrition within health and wellness in Saint Lucia.”
The Minister warned that diet-related illnesses continue to place a heavy burden on the country.
“We are seeing increased hospitalizations, and most of it is due to non-communicable diseases,” he stated. “Over 83 per cent of loss of life is due to non-communicable diseases, and a large percentage of workplace productivity loss is also linked to these conditions.”
He stressed that a more coordinated, cross-sectoral approach is needed.
“We have been looking at nutrition in silos,” Baptiste said. “We are now elevating nutrition to a national level, where it will involve collaboration across ministries and institutions to ensure that the objectives of government are met.”
Alongside policy reforms, the Minister reported steady progress toward the long-anticipated opening of St Jude Hospital in Augier.
“We have now completed the transition of a number of departments, including the kitchen, and we continue to verify the equipment,” he explained. “Professionals are ensuring that calibration is correct so that we can meet our deadline of the end of July, barring any unforeseen challenges.”
He noted that preparations are advancing on multiple fronts.
“A number of pieces of equipment such as beds have been installed, and we are now working on other departments to ensure that we can move in a very efficient way,” Baptiste said. “The commissioning team continues to meet every week to push progress toward full commissioning.”
The Minister expressed confidence that increased funding allocations will support these efforts.
“Institutions such as St Jude Hospital and the Millennium Heights Medical Complex have received increased resources in this year’s estimates of revenue and expenditure,” he said.
Baptiste maintained that the combined focus on infrastructure, service delivery and preventive care will reshape the country’s healthcare landscape.
“We are looking forward to causing the people of Saint Lucia to look at their health with a new lens,” he said, “and to become even more aware of the issues that are impacting negatively on our health.”