Members of the public who are affected by stroke or heart attacks (either themselves or a family member) are being asked to contribute information to the Barbados National Registry (BNR) for Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases.
Individuals may call the BNR???s hotline service, which was donated by Digicel, at 256-4BNR (256-4267) to give information about themselves, and can also authorise their medical practitioner to provide this information to the BNR.
The hotline facility is manned from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. daily.
Text information can also be sent to the hotline number as it has features similar to a cellular phone.
The BNR is a national surveillance system which comprises three registries: the BNR-Stroke, BNR-Heart and BNR-Cancer.
It is a project of the Ministry of Health and was officially launched, last March, at the Chronic Disease Research Centre, in Jemmott???s Lane. At the time, Minister of Health, Donville Inniss, in his remarks made the point that ???every Barbadian, the person recovering from a stroke, the cancer survivor or the family that has lost its bread winner to heart disease, must feel a sense of ownership of the BNR???.
He said then, ???this ownership will ensure that the Registry will be a successful instrument for the collection and classification of data on what is happening in relation to Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases in our country???.
jgill@barbados.gov.bb