Tahna Weston
Parliamentary representative for St. John’s Rural West Richard Lewis is dissatisfied with the Gaston Browne administration, which has failed to address a myriad of issues affecting the constituency.
Lewis spoke of the two clinics in the constituency-the one in Five Islands, which he said remains closed and the Grays Farm Clinic which is under-resourced resulting in the nurses not being able to perform optimally.
The MP has for some time been calling on the government to reopen the satellite clinic in Five Islands, which has been closed for well over a year and has forced those in need of medical services to travel to the Grays Farm Clinic.
Lewis, in an earlier press release, noted that it was “unethical to force sick persons to travel that long a distance for medical care, given that the Five Islands facility was constructed to avoid that very situation.”
The MP said that the Grays Farm Clinic in spite of his numerous complaints still lack critical resources including medical and cleaning supplies.
Lewis has in the past made donations to that clinic, the latest being last week.
He made mention of the Green Climate Fund claiming that the government had promised to use money from that fund to repair the clinic in Grays Farm.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the world’s largest dedicated fund helping developing countries respond to climate change.
“And I know they promised us under the Green Climate Fund that they would have done some work on the clinic and on the police station, and years later nothing has happened. What has happened to those funds-the Green Climate Fund to refurbish the clinic and the police station.
“I am looking at some supplies that would be given…to the clinic because they lack cleaning supplies, medical supplies, it’s like everything is falling down in this country and we must sit down and say nothing, we can’t take this,” Lewis said.
The MP said that he will continue to do what he can, as the parliamentary representative, with his limited resources on a constituency allowance of $2,000 a month to ensure that his constituents receive proper healthcare.
“And I’ll do all that I can in the interest of the people of St John’s Rural West,” Lewis promised.
Lewis also decried the condition of the Knuckle Block Community Centre, which houses the St. John’s Magistrates’ Court.
The building was constructed by the Chinese Government at the behest of the former parliamentary representative and Prime Minister Dr Winston Baldwin Spencer and has been plagued with a number of issues in recent times, including a leaking roof.
“And there is the issue of our community centre…it’s like sending the fool a little further. Every time it’s going to be ready in two months, it’s going to be ready in two weeks; and they (the court workers) are still there going on four and a half years.
“The building has been deteriorating, there’s mold, serious leaking, so by the time they get out of there what’s going to be left for us-what is going to be left?” Lewis said.
He is making an appeal to the Browne administration “to treat the people of St John’s Rural West with some respect.”
Lewis cited that the constituency has people who support the various political parties including independent minded individuals and those who are not mixed up in politics-all who pay taxes-deserve their share of the services offered to the people of Antigua and Barbuda.
