FREE HEALTH CARE in Barbados will soon get a boost with the opening of a new clinic.
The American University of Barbados (AUB) is planning to open a free clinic at its Silver Sands, Christ Church complex in September.
“The clinic will handle the range of health problems other clinics do and we will also be delivering free medicine,” AUB president Meesam Ali Khan told the MIDWEEK NATION recently. “We will treat whoever comes in. We will be in a position to do CAT (computerised tomography) scans and MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging).”
Doctors attached to the university will offer their services to the clinic.
“We want to be more than just a university that trains doctors,” Khan said. “We want to give back to Barbados, which is something done at our associate Era’s Lucknow Medical College in India.”
UAB founder and chief executive officer Dr Gary Barr told a medical conference here last weekend that Era’s Lucknow Medical College had a 950-bed hospital and treated more than 2 500 patients free of cost daily.
Both Barr and Ali told the media that AUB and its students were becoming increasingly involved in local outreach programme, working with agencies such as the Diabetes Association and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados.
The AUB was set up here as an offshore medical school two years ago. It offers four- and five-year MD degree programmes. Courses cost between $10 000 and $15 800 per semester.
Some Barbadians are studying at the AUB. (TY)
