Deputy Prime Minister (left) speaking to Kaimal Parris, 16, the youngest student in the programme. (AM)

THE FIRST EVER Medical Transcription Training Centre, launched in Barbados on Wednesday, will afford Barbadians better
wages than do traditional call-centre jobs.

This assertion has come from Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who is also Minister of Economic Affairs and Development, as she gave the feature address at its official opening in Building No. 8, Harbour Road, St Michael.

"I believe that we have the makings of an excellent opportunity for the very reason that this is an industry that is not sensitive to a recession," she said.

"The one sure thing is that all of us have to see a doctor at some time and the other sure thing is that a certain percentage of us will be the subject of intensive medical treatment at some point," she added.

Mottley said Barbados' modern industrial sector would comprise more of these kinds of industries "where the human input would have a far greater percentage in the make-up of the particular industry".

Beneficial

The Deputy Prime Minister also said that the establishment of this sector would benefit the region economically and socially.

"I trust that we will also see within CARICOM a shift within the medical industry itself for practitioners and hospitals within this region, to recognise that the maintenance of records is essential . . . for improvement in diagnostic procedures and treatment of our citizens. It is going to be, hopefully, the raising of the bar within the medical industry in the Caribbean," she said.

Mottley added it would also impose obligations on insurance companies which "sometimes have not been as meticulous in relation to the compilation assessment and maintenance of records of patients to appropriately assess their risks and therefore the structure
of their portfolio".

Opportunities from this new sector could also apply to and enhance other industries in the private sector, like the legal, financial and educational sectors.

In the first cohort of the programme, there are 50 students in two classes registered to complete the nine-month course, after which they would be placed into an internship. The second cohort of students taking the programme will begin next month.
(TM)