Patients at public institutions can now get their blood results in a matter of minutes. Two haematology machines which will help speed up the process are now functional at the National Radiotherapy Centre, St James, and at Port-of-Spain General Hospital. The new machines allow for a storage of up to 20,000 patients results each. The North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) bought the equipment for $2.4 million. Minister of Health, Therese Baptiste-Cornelis, was on hand to officially launch the use of the machines yesterday at the St James Medical Complex. Speaking to reporters, Baptiste-Cornelis said the machines would speed up the time for analysis of blood for patients. She said they would be able to analyse 12 patient samples simultaneously and would take just a few minutes to process results. She said that previously the blood tests took a day for results to be processed. Baptiste-Cornelis said the machines were used to test the white cell blood count and that was important when dealing with cancer patients.
The machines would effectively shorten the wait time for patients' blood results, she said. She said the faster process was important to the Ministry of Health as it was focusing on non-communicable diseases and the use of the machines would aid in that effort. Additionally, she said she would head to the World Health Assembly in Geneva this week, where the focus would be on non-communicable diseases. Baptiste-Cornelis added that the health sector also offered reconstructive surgery to breast cancer patients. "We live in a society that focuses on our looks," she said, adding that cancer was a private thing.