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From left: Head of Paediatrics at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Dr. Clyde Cave; Minister of Health, Donville Inniss; Director of Total Banking Corporation, Mr. Joerg Plate; Teacher In Charge of the Workshop at the Albert Cecil Graham Development Centre, Charles Edgehill; Chairman of Total Banking Corporation, Michael Hagn; student, Chad Walcott; Acting Coordinator at the Centre, Yvette Cumberbatch and Chairman of the Advisory Committee to the Centre, Felicia Inniss, were on hand to accept both donations on Monday. (C. Pitt/BGIS)??

A Montreal-based offshore bank has made a significant donation to the Albert Cecil Graham Development Centre and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) which, according to this country’s Health Minister, "will make a profound impact".

In accepting the funds during the handing-over ceremony recently, Health Minister Donville Inniss described the company as a good corporate citizen, and emphasised that Total Banking Corporation did not have to make the donation and assured the benefactors that "it will go a long way in assisting us with some of the challenges that confront us in both institutions."

Head of Paediatrics at the QEH,. Dr.??Clyde Cave, pointed out that the Unit was the only centre on the island which looked after babies who were born ill or premature and this was an expensive undertaking.??

"This donation of $50,000 will go towards the purchace of an incubator which ??costs about BDS $40,000 and the left over money will go towards oxygen saturation monitors which in modern newborn care would be at least one monitor per child.?? Right now, we have 21 babies in the Intensive Care Unit, each one would require a monitor, costing roughly $7,000 and about half of them would require incubators," he explained.

Meanwhile, Coordinator at the Centre, Yvette Cumberbatch, stated that the donation would be utilised to purchase modern assessment tools to be used in the Psychology, and the Speech Therapy Departments, as well as for specialised high chairs for the babies in day care and other testing equipment.

The Corporation, a subsidiary of Canfornav Inc., a privately-owned shipping company, made a pledge last year at its opening to contribute $100,000 to assist children in Barbados.?? Chairman of the Corporation, Michael Hagn and Director Joerg Plate were on hand for the donations to the two departments.??

lisa.bayley@barbados.gov.bb

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