Glen Vincent Clinic – A Family Affair

The Glen Vincent Memorial Clinic has been a symbol of service excellence in the Trevennion Park Road community of St. Andrew for 40 years, providing quality maternity and paediatric care.

For Audria Chambers, who was born and raised in Swallowfield, the clinic has always been a part of her life and is the first choice for health service for pregnant women and children in her family.

She tells JIS News that of her mother’s nine children, four of them (herself included) attended clinic at Glen Vincent, beginning with antenatal visits and continuing after birth with vaccinations and health checks.

The other five siblings were born before the clinic was established.

Having heard her mother’s praise for the quality of care it provides, she decided to continue the tradition by attending the antenatal clinic when she became pregnant with her daughter, who is now 25 years old.

Miss Chambers notes that when her daughter became pregnant and needed to access maternal care, there was no question as to where she would go for that service. “I took my daughter to Glen Vincent until she had her son and on September 24 he had his first birthday and he went back for his first-year check-up,” she informs.

Miss Chambers tells JIS News that all her nieces and nephews also receive primary healthcare at Glen Vincent.

“I ensured that they went here, and now that they are older and have their own children I have also ensured that they (the children) are brought here too,” she says. She says the clinic is her first point of contact for healthcare for the children in her family, as she understands the importance of not flooding the hospitals with cases that can be handled at the clinic.

“When any of my nieces or nephews get sick, mi have to run come to Glen Vincent first. Let them send mi to Bustamante Children’s Hospital or elsewhere. Glen Vincent is my first choice in every illness for them,” she emphasises.

She says that in addition to the high quality of care, what keeps her going back to Glen Vincent is the spirit of community it fosters.

She notes that children are comfortable in the environment, which is always clean, and that the staff is attentive and helpful.

“I would encourage persons who live in the surrounding communities to bring their children to Glen Vincent Clinic. It is the number-one for me,” Miss Chambers says.

Marjorie Campbell agrees with Miss Chambers, saying that the experience at Glen Vincent has been wonderful. She tells JIS News her family has been utilising the services of the clinic since 1990.

Miss Campbell commends the staff for treating the clients well and highlights the fact that they pay attention to detail, such as ensuring that the safety gate is always closed. She happily recommends Glen Vincent to others.

Medical Officer of Health for the Kingston and St. Andrew Health Department, Dr. Audré McIntosh, explains that the clinic started on November 30, 1976 as a polyclinic, providing both general and specialist examinations and treatments.

It now operates as a Paediatric Clinic catering to children from birth to 10 years, and is the only one of its kind in the region.

“We have a curative clinic for babies who come in with asthma, gastroenteritis, trauma requiring sutures and removal of foreign bodies. We also do school medicals and offer maternal and child-health services, antenatal, postnatal, and family planning,” she informs.

She says the clinic has a programme called ‘Well Baby’ where public health nurses offer immunisations and checks between vaccines to ensure that the growth parameters (height, weight and head circumference) are within normal limits.

Dr. McIntosh notes that since June 2016, the facility instituted an extended clinic from 4:00 pm to 8: 00 pm Monday to Friday, to provide support for the Bustamante hospital.

In 2015, there were 22,047 visits to the Glen Vincent Health Clinic, an average of 2,000 per month or 100 per day.

Over the same period, 9,017 babies were seen at the Well Baby clinic.