Black Immigrant Daily News

The launch of a new medical centre in Barbados is set to transform women’s healthcare.

BioConnect Medical Centre is the only clinic in the Caribbean explicitly devoted to women transitioning through the stages of menopause.

Additionally, Export Barbados (BIDC) is leading the efforts to help Barbados become the life sciences and biotechnology island of the Caribbean by assisting emerging Barbadian businesses in that sector offer their services to the world.

On a recent tour of the facility by a team from BIDC, led by chief executive officer Mark Hill, medical director Dr Roberta Corona explained that BioConnect Medical Centre is the manifestation of her dream of creating a safe space for women and filling the gap in health care and research on menopause. Dr Corona, the only certified menopause practitioner in Barbados, explained that menopause is not simply related to gynecology; it affects every function of a woman’s body. BioConnect’s goal is to treat menopausal women holistically, making them healthier women.

In addition to providing gynecological services and menopause management tailored for each woman, BioConnect offers treatment for hormone optimisation, bone health, incontinence, sexual health, weight management, and aesthetic medicine.

“We are here for the world; we are not here only for Barbados. We are in Barbados because we found Barbados was the perfect location for this. It is the perfect place to serve the Caribbean, where there is a huge lack, even bigger than in Barbados. Our mission is to create a Menopause Society for the Caribbean to create a community that will bring women together, and it will be a platform where we provide education, evidence-based medicine, and . . . a community for women to exchange experiences,” said the medical director.

Chief executive officer Rachel De Gale disclosed that the clinic, which opened on May 23 this year welcomed 125 new patients in its first month as it pursued the mission of changing the health-care landscape and promoting complete wellness. The clinic welcomed patients from the Caribbean and North America.

The BioConnect team is especially pleased about the tremendous support and technical assistance it received from Export Barbados (BIDC), and it is ready to do its part to help Barbados achieve its life sciences goal.

De Gale added, “If you take a look at your telephone screen and you type ‘B,’ ‘I,’ ‘O,’ 246 comes up; it is the area code of Barbados. Barbados was always destined to be the bio life sciences headquarters of the world. No one else has our area code, and now it’s time for us to rise up; it’s time for us to be the leader.”

Mark Hill, CEO of Export Barbados (BIDC), described BioConnect as a trailblazer helping to fulfill a vision for life sciences in Barbados. He stated that the life wellness market is growing between five to 10 percent annually, and he is confident this is a space that Barbadians can invest in and see returns.

CEO Hill stated, “We’re shaping it out that those life-centric industries can use Barbados as that hub to really build out the sector, do research and development, and also to build out scalable industries but high-value services and products. I’m really excited about menopause as a specific, targeted niche area that is catering to women all over the globe, domiciled here in Barbados and in partnership with tourism. We are positioning the life sciences space where we have an ecosystem that makes access to scientific technology a lot more affordable.”

BioConnect intends to conduct studies to gather data and write guidelines specifically for women of color because most studies or guidelines target Caucasians.

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Stuart Dack, CEO of Cayman National Corporation, and Nigel Baptiste, president and CEO of Republic Financial Holdings Ltd, shake on an agreement to merge the operations Republic Bank (Cayman) Ltd with Cayman National Bank and Cayman National Securities Ltd. –

The Cayman Islands banking and securities operations of Republic Financials Holdings Ltd (RFHL) are to be acquired, via a merger, by two subsidiaries of Cayman National Corporation (CNC), pending regulatory approvals, it was announced on Monday.

In a statement, CNC said Cayman National Bank (CNB) will merge with Republic Bank (Cayman) Ltd. Also, Cayman National Securities Ltd will take over the securities operations of Republic Cayman.

Once finalised, the remaining entities will be Cayman National Bank and Cayman National Securities.

“The merger of these entities rationalises operations in the Cayman Islands and creates efficiencies, with no loss of service to clients or displacement of staff. All Caymanians at (Republic) will continue to be employed within the Cayman National Group following the completion of the mergers,” the CNC statement said.

It also quoted Stuart Dack, CEO of CNC, who said, “We believe this transaction will add great value to the Cayman National Corporation Group” and that the group looked forward to welcoming Republic’s Cayman clients and staff.

Nigel Baptiste, RFHL president and CEO, said the merger brings the TT group “one step closer to streamlining our operations in the Cayman Islands.”

“This move will enable the RFHL Group to enhance the experience of the existing clients of Republic Bank (Cayman) Ltd by providing access to a wider array of products and services, and eliminating some of the duplication that currently exists across both entities.”

In the coming weeks, Republic Cayman will provide clients with information about the proposed merger, which will be announced once approved by regulators.

In March 2019, RFHL acquired a majority interest – 74.99 per cent – in CNC for US$198 million via its Barbados banking subsidiary.

Its then chairman Ronald Harford said the acquisition of CNC “will allow us to combine and leverage the talents of our two world-class organisations. We are particularly eager to learn from Cayman National’s experience in international financial services and serving high net worth clients.”

At the time, the deal moved RFHL’s asset base to US$12 billion. Earlier this month, RHFL announced TT$1.15 billion in profit for the nine-months ending June 30.

CNC, established in 1974, reported net income of US$11.2 million for the six-month period ending March 31 – down four per cent for the same period a year ago.

Publicly traded on the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange, CNC comprises – Cayman National Bank Ltd, Cayman National Fund Services Ltd, Cayman National Securities Ltd, Cayman National Bank (Isle of Man) Ltd and Cayman National Trust Company (Isle of Man) Ltd, and Cayman National (Dubai) Ltd.

Republic Cayman was established in 1992 and holds a trust licence and an unrestricted Class B banking licence under the Banks and Trust Companies Law of the Cayman Islands.

It also holds a mutual funds licence and is a registered excluded person for purposes of the Securities Investment Business Law of the Cayman Islands.

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Un informe de la Oficina del Contralor reveló que el Departamento de Educación pagó $418,596 en servicios de agua y luz, que no fueron utilizados en el 90 por ciento de las escuelas cerradas en la región educativa de Arecibo.

“El análisis de una muestra de 10 de las 61 escuelas cerradas entre el 2017 y 2018, indicó que la suspensión de la energía eléctrica se produjo hasta 11 meses posteriores a los cierres y la suspensión del servicio de agua potable hasta 23 meses después. La auditoría de cinco hallazgos señala que los directores y los consejos escolares no cumplieron con los trámites correspondientes para el cierre de las cuentas bancarias de las escuelas, contrario a las Directrices para el Cierre de Cuentas emitidas en el 2017. En una escuela se certificó la emisión de un cheque por $4,834 pero la escuela receptora no evidenció el uso de dichos fondos. En las escuelas restantes la documentación de cuentas bancarias no estuvo disponible”, reza el comunicado.

Además, en el informe resaltan que, al visitar las escuelas, estas se encontraban vandalizadas y rodeadas por animales, equipo deteriorado y desperdicios, lo que no permite maximizar el desarrollo del plantel para otros fines.

Por otra parte, se indica que se “observaron cajas de expedientes de estudiantes y exempleados apilados sin clasificar ni inventariar, en un área húmeda y sin ventilación en dos escuelas que servían de almacén […] La auditoría devela también, que la Oficina Regional de Arecibo, no tuvo un encargado de propiedad del 2018 al 2019, no contaba con los inventarios físicos anuales de los años fiscales del 2017 y 2018, y otras deficiencias relacionadas con la propiedad”. 

Para acceder al informe, acceda a  www.ocpr.gov.pr.

DA-23-01

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