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Heartline Magazine July - September 2007
PRESIDENT'S REPORT
 1st ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING - HEART & STROKE FOUNDATION OF BARBADOS INC.
Held at the Foundation's headquarters, #3
Railway View, Ladymeade Gardens, Jemmotts Lane, St. Michael,
Barbados, On Tuesday May 29th 2007
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I welcome you, and thank you for coming out this evening to
facilitate the completion of this the first AGM of the Heart &
Stroke Foundation of Barbados. Had we been able to hold the
meeting planned for the 20th April, it would have been a year
and two days to the holding of the historic Annual General
Meeting, the twenty-first, of the Heart Foundation of Barbados,
which officially gave birth to what we have to-day, the Heart &
Stroke Foundation of Barbados.
As was introduced last year, there is
contained in the Financial Statements for the year ended
September 30th 2006, available for your perusal, a “Report of
the Directors and Trustees“. This report ought to have been
circulated in advance of the AGM, for the benefit of members, to
allow your greater interaction should you desire. I do apologise
that that early circulation was not achieved, and this was owing
to the fact that there was an unavoidable delay in receiving the
financial document. However, I encourage you to read your copy
wherein there is a full summary of the activities of the
Foundation for the year.
That notwithstanding, you will, I am sure,
wish to hear from me a report on the development of the
organisation since embracing 'Stroke'. I am therefore to say to
you that our CDP&R unit is already assisting in the 're-hab'
therapy of a few Stroke patients. However, there has been
established a sub-committee specifically charged with the
implementation of a focused programmme for the Stroke patient,
and the aim is, with the partnership of the Ministry of Health
through the QEH and the polyclinics all over the nation, to
effectively make available and expand the relevant services
needed by Stroke patients throughout Barbados, as we extend the
scope of our ability to assist them.
The support group of the Foundation has been
revamped and has become the Heart & Stroke Support Group. The
exercise has taken rather longer than had been anticipated, and
for good reason. We wish to record our thanks to the many
persons who have been involved in the initial thrust in the area
of that valued support system for a number of years who have now
indicated their inability to go on; and are most grateful to the
several persons who have renewed their commitment to the cause.
With demonstrated dedication, aided by fresh legs specifically
representative of the stroke interest, the group is set to move
forward, and includes members of the Stroke Support Group.
There are a couple of additional issues that
I consider it appropriate to highlight.
Firstly, it is appropriate to announce the
appointment of Mrs. Jennifer L. Randall to the post of
Fundraising and Administration Manager with effect from April 2,
2007.
Over the last six months the Foundation has
reassessed its human resource requirements in light of its
current and short term objectives, and conducted extensive
searches and interviews to put in place the best person
available to fill this position, having regard to our need to
again concentrate much more on fundraising. Jenny, who has been
acting in a similar capacity since September 2006, brings to
this ' part time ' position a strong background in this field,
and a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role.
The choice of the successful candidate was
as much a challenge to those of us immediately involved in the
process, as it was for Mrs. Randall who was quite confused with
having to compete in the rigorous selection process. For the
selection panel it was the dispute of whether it was going to
compromise by attempting to go for second or third best to avoid
the scenario of the successful candidate being the wife of the
CEO. In the final analysis, the Board of Directors confidently
accepted the recommendation of the selection committee, and
noted the extensive work that Mrs. Randall had already
voluntarily done for the Foundation, particularly in the setting
up of the computerisation of the Foundation's accounts a few
years ago. I am pleased to formally introduce Jenny to you, as
we look forward to her continued dedicated support.
Within the report of the Directors and
Trustees of the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados for the
year ended September 30, 2006, at page 2 of Financial
Statements, we observe that the most momentous event during the
year for the CDP&R unit was the signing of a contract with the
Ministry of Health on September 21, 2006 for the expansion of
the cardiovascular rehabilitation programme. It is fitting that
I take the opportunity here to underscore this achievement, for
it was indeed the most momentous event for the Foundation. It
represents the culmination of an endeavour commenced a number of
years ago, which has been quietly and patiently and relentlessly
pursued by the Foundation, in passionate support of colleagues
at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and has been brought to
fruition by the instrumentality of the European Union who have
funded the project. It is also historic in that it represents
the first time that a non-governmental organisation has been
contracted by the Government to perform services of this nature.
 As has been well ventilated in the press and
I am sure that you have read it in your Heartline magazine, in
either the locally printed or the 'on line' version at www.
hfob.org, the contract is valued at $890,000 over a period of
five years, and entails capital expenditure of $215,000 and
fifty persons benefiting from the rehabilitation programme at
any point in time. Since the signing of the contract, the
Foundation has purchased a new Telemetry Monitoring System,
which has now been installed by the suppliers Pelegrina of
Puerto Rico and this has facilitated the resumption of
admissions of 'phase 2' clients to the 'rehab' unit.
In reporting, I would also like to express
satisfaction with the continued growth of the activities within
the Emergency Cardiac Care [ECC] unit. There has been a
significant increase in the number of training courses organised
by the ECC division during the year under review. This success
has been significantly due to the initiative and dedication of
Mrs. Gina Pitts, the former Manager of the unit. Members will
have learnt that Mrs. Pitts has moved on to a new professional
challenge as of February 1, 2007 and has been succeeded by Mr.
Ricardo Thompson, a Registered Nurse, who has a BSc degree in
Health Studies from the University of Paisley, Scotland and a
Midwifery Diploma from the Barbados Community College. He has
previously worked at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Scotland,
King Edwards Memorial Hospital, Bermuda, and the Queen Elizabeth
Hospital (QEH), Barbados.
I wish to record the sincere appreciation of
all of us to Gina for the tremendous enthusiasm, energy and
efficiency which she brought to the work at hand, and the
corresponding success of the programme, demonstrated and
materialized during her service to the Foundation. Gina has been
associated with the Foundation from the time of her return to
Barbados five years ago. First as a volunteer, then as a CPR
instructor, and latterly as the Manager of the ECC Department.
And though she has left us for greener pastures, she remains
connected as a member of the Foundation, and a valued resource.
We thank you Gina and wish you well.
And to you “Ricky”, we say welcome aboard.
We know that you have big boots to fill, but your experience,
qualifications, and keenness, well places you to take up the
mantle with our confidence. We look forward to your success, and
wish you well.
As usual, the Foundation has received
wonderful assistance from the commercial sector of Barbados,
without whom it would have been impossible to fulfil our mandate
and our objectives so successfully. In the Directors and
Trustees report we have identified those entities with the
projects they have been specifically associated, and I here wish
to underscore our tremendous appreciation to everyone on the
behalf of the Board and all of you. You will forgive me, if it
is only here that I add recognition of the significant
contributions made by Mr. Tony Cumberbatch who is the Editor of
our Heartline magazine for its continued outstanding
performance.
I know that you will agree that the magazine
has become better and better and we wish to say Thank you!!
Tony. In similar vein we also wish to recognise Mr. Ian Pitts,
Managing Director and CEO of Sunset Solutions who has been
responsible for the updating and the upkeep of the Foundation's
website. Again, there can be no doubt about the outstanding
quality of presentation that has been achieved, the level of
information that is now available, and the fact that the
information has been constantly current. Judging from the
numbers of persons visiting the site I am sure that many of you
must be numbered amongst them, for surely although we recognise
that we have a way to travel in our quest to obtain the optimum,
it was indeed pleasing to note that we had over nine hundred and
sixty hits on the 'site' in the month of March this year [2007].
For a still fledgling project, that is distinctly encouraging,
and we thank you, Ian.
We wish to say thanks to the Management of
Ocean Park, who have begun a pledged programme of support to the
Foundation, by donating $4,031 to the Foundation, the proceeds
of the Chinese Auction held on February 14 this year at their
Valentine Sweethearts Dinner. I am happy to advise that they, in
consultation with our zestful and hard working CEO, Mr. Adrian
Randall, have conceptualised a number of possible events in
support of funds for the Foundation, the most recently
determined is a presentation scheduled for Sunday 19th August of
the Senlac Bell Ringers from U.K; and I would wish to not only
give notice of this upcoming event but urge you to plan to
attend, bring family and friends to enjoy an outstanding
performance, and support the funding of the Foundation.
Ladies & Gentlemen, as I come to the close
of my report, I want to place on record my thanks to all my
colleagues for their support and their contributions to the
administration of the Foundation during the first year of the
Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados. They should all feel as I
do, honoured to have had the opportunity to be part of that
history. For some of us, the demands on our time by the
responsibilities of other obligations or other pressing matters
have made the year a challenging one, but I am satisfied, and
give you the assurance that we all gave of our best. It has been
said to us by concerned parties that in the interest of
transparency, and to obtain your more active involvement with
the process of selection and election of your Directors, that we
might consider making available a report of the record of
attendance at Board Meetings of Directors, as is, I am told,
employed elsewhere. But it is this consciousness by Board
members of their responsibility to the Foundation that causes us
to frequently reflect on what we are able to contribute. And it
is because of this consideration that I have to advise, with
deep regret, that Dr. Brian Charles, Senior Vice President, has
had to withdraw from the Board of Directors of the Foundation.
Brian has had the honour of having been the only person from
South America and the Caribbean invited to sit on the Board to
develop the regulations for the 2010 changes to the Emergency
Cardiac Care regulations (These regulations are reviewed for the
purpose of update and amendment every five years), an honour of
which we are proud, but a situation where he will of necessity
have to undertake quite a bit of travel, and generally will have
such a work load that makes it if not impossible, then
impractical for him to accept to commit himself to the
Foundation during this year. The Board has expressed its
appreciation to Brian for his stellar contributions to the
Foundation over the recent years, both off and on the Board, and
I am sure that you will join me in offering him heartiest
congratulations and Best Wishes.
I thank you the members for the honour you
bestowed on me by electing me to be the first President of the
newly constituted Foundation, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of
Barbados. I have, particularly with regards to Dr. Charles'
departure from the Board, agreed to make myself available for
re-election if it is your pleasure, and pledge my best endeavour
to the governance and advancement of the Foundation with God's
grace.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I thank You.
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