Road to accreditation: JNF Hospital enlists services of an Emergency Room Specialist

Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 18, 2025 (JNF Hospital Communications) — In its sustained efforts to assist and enable the Joseph Nathaniel France General Hospital offer the best healthcare services and at the same time get international accreditation, the Ministry of Health has enlisted the services of an Emergency Room Specialist.

The arrival at the RLB International Airport in Basseterre of the Emergency Room Specialist, Jamaica-based Dr Jason Ifill, on Monday June 16 marked a pivotal moment in the delivery of healthcare services in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, as the JNF General Hospital has never had a resident emergency room specialist.

“We are extremely happy to have on board the engagement of Dr Jason Ifill, who is an Emergency Room Specialist,” said PS in the Ministry of Health, Mr Curtis Martin. “This is first of its kind, really, where we have an actual specialist for ER services. This has been the brainchild of the Honourable Prime Minister, and Minister of Health, Dr Terrance Drew, who has been firmly working on the overall improvement of healthcare.”

Giving background information, Director of Health Institutions within the Ministry of Health Dr Jenson Morton pointed out that an ER Specialist has licensure and legal permission to do some of the lifesaving interventions such that the total wait that somebody might require for any particular intervention is decreased.

“We always depended on the multitude of other specialists as well as the strong General Practitioners, so this person is going to increase the total usefulness of the emergency room,” explained Dr Morton. “It is also one of the prerequisites for the hospital to become an accredited body.”

He added: “The emergency room has to be led by a specialist – it is not an emergency medicine specialist, an internist, but now that we have the ER Specialist, at least there is someone that we have on staff that we can dedicate to that role.”

The presence of Emergency Room Specialists plays a significant role in the international accreditation of any health institution. Indeed the Joseph Nathaniel France General Hospital has made arrangements to have the services of two Emergency Room Specialists, but so far only Dr Jason Ifill has responded positively.

“As it stands right now, the hospital is not accredited – there are areas in which we still have to pull up before we get the accreditation,” said Dr Morton. “A lot of those areas have been identified and we are working on them bit by bit. The hospital would have attempted an accreditation process way back in 2003 and they tried it for quite a number of years, but in the end they abandoned that previous attempt.”

The ER Specialist was welcomed, on arrival at the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport on Monday afternoon June 16, by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Mr Curtis Martin, Medical Chief of Staff at the JNF General Hospital Dr Daveen Wilkin, and Liaison Officer, Ministry of Health, Ms Tyiana Fredrick.

Dr Ifill’s first assignment was on Tuesday, June 17, when he met and held discussions with medical officers that work in the emergency room of JNF Hospital. He was welcomed at the hospital’s conference room, where the meeting was to take place, by PS Mr Curtis Martin, Dr Jenson Morton, Dr Daveen Wilkin, and the outgoing Head of the Emergency Room, Dr Dwain Archibald.

According to Dr Morton, Dr Archibald has been transferred to Community Based Health Services as the District Medical Officer (DMO). The new Head of the Emergency Room will be Dr Carlton Williams.

Dr Jason Ifill holds a Doctorate of Medicine in Emergency Medicine which he earned on October 18, 2018. He is a Consultant in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Associate Lecturer for the University of the West Indies Hospital, and has a subspecialisation in acute stroke management and point of care ultrasound.

“I believe that positive change is possible, and I am looking forward to see how I can serve and positively impact the Emergency Department,” underscored Dr Ifill. “Basically I am here on a temporary stay this time, more so to evaluate and assess the situation. I am going to hear more from the Medical Chief of Staff in terms of the specific things that are necessarily needed, and we will continue to be in dialogue in terms of future involvement.”

The Ministry of Health has four pillars, focusing on Physical Health, Mental Health, Social Health, and Spiritual Health, and according to Permanent Secretary Mr Curtis Martin, the whole idea is to improve its service offering to the patients and stakeholders, and also to pair capacity for its staff.

“The idea is for us to benefit from the services of Dr Ifill in terms of better triaging (conducting preliminary assessment of patients or casualties in order to determine the urgency of their need for treatment and the nature of treatment required), better engagement with the public, better techniques, better protocols, better standards, and better operations. Of course there is the all-important continuous medical education effort that we are making to ensure that our nurses and doctors are in line with international standards.”