Professor Timothy Roach recently had the honour of cutting the ribbon to declare the Respiratory Unit open.
The recently opened Respiratory Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital will not only be made available for those persons undergoing tests and treatment at the hospital, but clinics here and abroad will also be allowed to make use of the facility.
Professor Timothy Roach, founder of the Respiratory Unit and a consultant at the QEH noted the above, as he expressed his delight recently in seeing the Unit being upgraded, with the aid of philanthropic efforts. The Respiratory Unit was originally opened in the early 1990s and from the time of its inception, it has served as a multifunctional area where outpatient and in-patient services are provided. The unit is presently staffed by two nurses and a respiratory therapist.
“The Respiratory Unit will function as Referral Centre for many other Caribbean islands and many other clinics and hospital and doctors’ offices around the island will be able to make use of it and get tests and investigations done,” Professor Roach, who had the honour of cutting the ribbon to declare the Unit open, recently noted.
He meanwhile explained the makeup of the Respiratory Unit, pointing out that it has a Bronchoscopy Suite, in which bronchoscopes are used to examine inside of the lungs and for making the diagnoses of pneumonia and cancers. It also contains a Pulmonary Functioning Testing Unit, which is invaluable in treating asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
“Asthma of course is one of the most common chronic diseases in Barbados. In fact, it is the commonest chronic disease of childhood in Barbados,” Roach said.
“So now we are in a position to make the diagnosis and to monitor the disease, but that is not all the pulmonary function testing does. It will allow us to examine our athletes, to see that they are being trained professionally, so that our world class athletes have the full medical support to which they are entitled,” the consultant added.
He meanwhile has expressed his delight in seeing his “brainchild” become a world class facility.
“The Respiratory Unit has always been my particular work of art over the years, but this has taken my initial efforts to a completely different level and I wish to thank all of the donors, all of the partners and all of the people who have worked so hard to get what is now a state-of–the-art world class unit that is able to investigate and treat all of the respiratory diseases in the island and I look forward to great things coming out of the unit,” Roach told this newspaper. (RSM)