BOSTIC SAYS FAREWELL

OUTGOING Minister of Health and Wellness, The Most Honourable Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic says his time in this post has been enjoyable though there were challenges faced.
He told this to the media as he spoke during an interview on Tuesday, his final day in office. He is also set to begin his retirement from elective politics having announced last year he will not be con- testing The City seat during the general elections.
“I would say first of all that I enjoyed the job very, very much and I enjoyed working with the staff at the Ministry of Health and Wellness and for me, those two together meant that I rate my time here overall as being a very enjoyable one.”
He continued, “It has been very, very productive and I am glad that a number of things that the Prime Minister had given me or tasked me with, plus some that I wanted to do on my own, that we have been able to do those. Not everything, but quite a bit.”
Speaking about some of the high points of his time at the helm, the former Member of Parliament for The City said these included starting a national NCD programme, the commencement of the national cardiology project, and establishing a 24-hour service at Winston Scott Polyclinic.
Sharing more about the latter, he said, “That was a very, very important event and a very good one for the people of this country. I was equally happy when we were able to bring the close to 100 nurses from Ghana because we were struggling at that point in time with human re- sources and that was a significant boost for us. I was very happy to be able to really dissect what was happening in relation to the nurses and the failure of the majority of the nurses at the regional exams and to be able to get that back on track. So that for me was a very important occasion as well.”
Bostic also listed the completion of the new Accident and Emergency Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) among
his high points. He also explained why it has not yet officially been opened.
“We are doing some additional work there, some expansion, so that we have a larger area for emergency services and that is going to be achieved by utilising the space of the old Accident and Emergency Depart- ment plus removing some of the administrative and outpatients’ clinics and services from that facility to other facilities, so that we would have a larger area to operate with.”
Turning his attention to speak about the lows, he stated these were few and had “to do with not being able to achieve certain things”.
Giving an example of what he hoped to accomplish, he stated he wished “that we were able to complete our programme at the St. John Polyclinic which was supposed to be also 24-hour service.
“We had plans in place to move to extended hours first to see how that would go before going full 24-hours, and we had the staffing sorted out even with the arrival of the Ghanian nurses, but COVID threw a lot of that off track and I hope that we would be able to get back to that level where we can have operationalised and also have some cross-country public transport routes that would facilitate persons
being able to easily access services at St. John,” he shared.
Looking ahead to the future, Bostic, who has given over 40 years of service to the City and the country, said he plans to start his retirement by relaxing.
“I am hoping that whatever happens that I might be able to get a few weeks without doing anything at all, just to relax, that would be a good thing, and I am sure that there will be things to do after this period of time in my life after this chapter. I am still going to be around. I am still available to assist and to render service in any way that I can.”
(MG)