Adventist Community Hospital Expands Services for Trinidad and Tobago
29 Oct 2022 | CARU Staff || Leonard Pierre
Having reached a milestone of six decades in health services, the Community Hospital renewed its commitment to the residents of Trinidad and Tobago with additional health support initiatives. This Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) entity continues to model the healing ministry of Jesus through an outstanding team of healthcare workers.
Dr. Kern Tobias, Chairman of the Board of Community Hospital, thanked the facility’s hardworking team, “I know that it has not been easy during the years here, but thank you, Community Hospital, for providing quality services for so many at the national level and beyond. The hospital for many, here, symbolizes more than just a structure, more than a place to receive medication or another lab result; it represents hope and life. We are an institution that reflects God Love and His compassion to all — patients, partners, and visitors.”
Like comparable national healthcare providers, Community Hospital confronted challenges and its new administrator is making strides to enhance the facility’s services.
Dr. Stephen S. Carryl (who, until recently, was Chairman of Surgery, Chief of Perioperative Services and Director of Bariatric Surgery at Harlem Hospital Center) shared his excitement with the constituency of Trinidad at a camp meeting: “It is about the circumstances that’s going on in their lives so that we could make a difference. . . We are implementing a new program where we are going to be the first and only hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean to have an inpatient rehab facility”.
A behavioral health unit headed by Dr. Joann Williams Corryl has been integrated into the hospital’s wellness services. Dr. Carryl, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, clarified, “It means that every patient that comes to Community Hospital gets a psycho-social evaluation to [determine] what else is happening in their lives. There is no other private hospital in Trinidad with such a department”.
Under a new memorandum of understanding with the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC), the Community Hospital-USC medical clinic opened in 2022, and operates daily on the university’s campus. Dr. Carryl added, “It is not just for the students, but will include an urgent care facility that caters for the community.”
When the 59-bed hospital officially opened on September 17, 1962, it occupied a prominent place in health ministry on the island. National leaders paid tribute to the SDA Church for its commitment to medical ministry and to the public; the hospital had critical care specialists and supplemented the government’s medical services offered at the Port of Spain and San Fernando general hospitals, while easing their strain.
“Sixty years has been quite a journey but with God’s help, [we will continue] to deliver quality care to the community – we are the best in quality care”, Dr. Carryl emphasized. Coupled with its dynamic chaplaincy services, the hospital is noted for facilitating support groups and these are available to patients, their relatives, and the community of Trinidad and Tobago. The Community Hospital of Seventh-day Adventists is located in Port of Spain, Trinidad. It has treated thousands of patients and continues to provide a wide range of medical education and treatment.
