Dr. C. Alert, MB BS, DM. FCCFP.Family Physician. “If you’re not getting older, you’re dead”. Tom Petty, musician, Grammy Award winner. It was a bit of a wakeup call when, on September 19th 2023, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the only tertiary hospital on the island, issued a Public Service Advisory, advising all with non-life threatening […]
We are getting older! Is our health care getting wiser? Read More »
Dr. C.V. Alert MB BS, DM., FCCFP. Family Physician. Unfortunately few Caribbean adults pay little attention to adult immunizations, except when the get a ‘rusty nail jook’ or other significant laceration and they realize that their tetanus immunization status has not been updated. So Caribbean Health (& Wellness) Ministries typically do not have adult immunization
The influenza (‘flu’) vaccine? Yes please. Read More »
Dr. C.V. Alert, MB BS, MSc, DM. Family Physician. Is our health care any good?. Is it horribly bad? The answer depends on your vantage point, and what parameters you use to evaluate the health care. In the ‘good old days’, at least up to the year 2012, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) produced and
What you see is what you get. How good (or bad) is Health Care in Barbados? Read More »
Dr. C.V. Alert, MB BS, DM. FCCFP.Family Physician. When faced with a challenging situation, there are two basic options: attempt to tackle the problem, or turn your back on the problem and hope that miraculously that the problem will disappear. In political terms this latter is often termed ‘kicking the can down the road’. A
Kicking the ‘health’ can down the road. Read More »
Dr. C.V.Alert MB BS, DM.Family Physician. Many years ago, when calypso singer Arrow, regarded as the first soca superstar from Montserrat, asked ‘de party people’ “How you feelin ?” their popular reply was “Hot hot hot”. This was a monster hit, and even got adopted for the Cricket World Cup here in the Caribbean years
Dr. C.V. Alert, MB BS, DM.Family Physician. Nutrition plays a significant role in health promotion and in disease prevention and management. To avoid various disease states, advising persons on variety, balance, and moderation of foods, is important in promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is perhaps unfortunate that, in Barbados today, we have so many unhealthy
Healthy Eating: the plant based diet. Read More »
Dr. C.V. Alert, MB BS, DM. Family Physician.Dr. D. C. Scantlebury, MB BS , DM, FACC, FACP, FSCAI. Consultant Interventional Cardiologist.Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados. May 17th 2023 is World Hypertension Day. Hypertension is one of the most prevalent chronic illnesses in Barbados, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB) joins Medical
World Hypertension Day 2023. Read More »
Dr. C. V. Alert, MB BS, DM.Family Physician. As far as health trends go, there is almost universal acceptance that, in the last few decades, we have moved from an era of communicable (infectious) diseases to an era of non-communicable diseases, the NCDs. Today it seems that the two eras are trying to see which
Do we need an adult immunization policy? Read More »
Dr. C. V. Alert, MB BS, DM. (Family Medicine), FCCFP. Family Physician. Fellow, Caribbean College of Family Physicians. There have been advances in a number of specific clinical areas of cardiovascular disease prevention and management over the last two decades that offer the Caribbean Family Physician the opportunity to improve the management in Caribbean patients,
Dr. C. V. Alert, MB BS, DM. (Family Medicine), FCCFP. Family Physician. Fellow, Caribbean College of Family Physicians. The Family Physician in the Caribbean, part of the team of Primary Health Care workers, serves on the front-lines in battling not one but two pandemics, an chronic non-communicable (NCD) pandemic that has been around for a
