University of The West Indies, School of Clinical Medicine & Research

And so came into being, in 1997 the faculty of Medicine of the University of the West Indies School of Medicine was initiated at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau Bahamas, -a vision nurtured by a Bahamian medical student 20 years prior.

The seeds had been sown already. In 1967, the PMH was approved for the teaching of medical interns, the first year of medical apprenticeship after successful completion of a medical degree. My generation merely had to water the fertile grounds. We started with the formal establishment of a link with the medical library of the University of Miami, Faculty of Medicine. Through the diligence of Mrs. Suzette Burrows, we were able to link our reading room at the PMH to have full access of the research and literature search capabilities of this major North American medical school in 1991. Through a fax machine donated by the Medical Association of the Bahamas, we established daily communications for advancing medical scholarships. We became a formal library member of the Community Network library of the Calder Medical School of Medicine at the University of Miami- we made their medical library, international.

The quantum leap in our quest to establish a clinical faculty at the PMH came with the establishment of the formal CME program in 1992. I was honoured to be its first Director and have Mrs. Callender as the full time administrator. We were directly accountable to the Medical Chief of Staff, Dr. Glen Beneby, (the other dreamer). Through the CME office, formal lecturers for the entire medical community were organized on a bimonthly basis; all medical departments were charged to formalize their teaching programs and visiting lecturers. Prominent faculties throughout North America and Europe became a regular staple in our lecture hall at the Grosvenor Court Nursing School. Visits and elective clinical rotations by international students from medical school from all the five contents became a regular event.

In 1992, Our then Prime Minister, the Honourable Hubert Ingraham, had request, directly to the Vice Chancellor of the University of the west Indies on our behalf, to have the clinical teaching program in the Bahamas; this 'forgotten missive' assumed overnight, hurricane strength in the University's bureaucracy. Within 6 weeks, the Dean of the Trinidadian medial school visited the Bahamas to review the CME program and the facility. Being quite impressed with his findings, Professor Melville organized the University's accreditation team comprised of representatives from the three existing campuses. Within three months, the team visited and evaluated the PMH and the Sandilands Rehabilitation Hospitals potential to be a teaching facility for the final two years of the medical school. We passed with flying colours. The first batch of students arrived April 1996.

Four years after the launch of the undergraduate teaching program, the first formal postgraduate program, Family Practice was introduced. To complement the postgraduate program, a Research Unit was established in 2006. Its first Annual Research Day Conference, highlighting current medical research in the Bahamas, launched the beginning of the 10th anniversary year.

The establishment of the Clinical training program in the Bahamas in 1996 was first expansion of the Medical faculty in over 20 years. We can be proud of our achievements: greater opportunities for Bahamians who dream of becoming doctors; significant financial savings for Bahamians who elect to complete their medical training at home; and a major upgrade of the medical services delivered at the governments tertiary and primary health care facilities. But most of all, the local Faculty represents a quantum leap in the health care delivery system to better the health of all Bahamian and residents. As the PMH health services have expanded to include over 30 specialty and subspecialty medical services reflecting over 60 Board certified medical specialists, the pursuit of medical scholarship has been institutionalized; we could expect even greater things to come.