On Thursday, April 7, the Department of Health held a Careers in Public Health Fair at the City Hall in Hamilton. Attendees were able to learn about and explore the various Careers in Public Health. 

Also, on Thursday, April 7, the Public Health Awards were presented on the steps of City Hall. Public Health Awards recognise an individual and an organisation that has contributed to the success of public health during the COVID pandemic.

“Public Health is a diverse and challenging career,” said Minister of Health, Kim Wilson, JP, MP. “Public health may conjure images of community medical clinics or awareness campaigns promoting healthy living, but the field is not nearly so narrow. Instead, public health professionals are involved in everything from identifying diseases to ensuring healthy and safe environments to creating public policy. Now more than ever, most of the world has witnessed a public health crisis first-hand, and there will be no shortage or demand for well-trained public health professionals.

“I want to thank every programme represented here today for your dedicated service to protecting the public’s health.”

David Kendell, the Director of the Department of Health, and Ms Lynn Jackson, Chief Nursing Officer, assisted Minister Wilson in presenting the awards to the winners, and they acknowledged all nominees.

The Public Health Recognition Award 2022 for Organisations was awarded to the Bermuda Red Cross.

The Bermuda Red Cross acted as an auxiliary to the Government during the pandemic, directly assisting the Department of Health, to ensure that every request was resourced, met and provided to those most in need. They acted as a backup to the staff of Health and provided manpower to achieve the required tasks. Responders and volunteers were on-call seven days a week during the peak of the pandemic and ensured that no task went unnoticed or undelivered.

In partnership with Bermuda Broadcasting Company, the Bermuda Red Cross planned and organised three six-week radio sessions to reach those without access to key media sources and to provide “Self-Help COVID” topics and speakers to educate and inform the listening audiences to be more self-sufficient during the pandemic.

They also provided and distributed over 300,000 disposable face masks (free of charge) to the most vulnerable members of the community (seniors including residents and staff at all rest homes), and other critical third sector organisations providing goods and services to the community. Whilst this activity is not part of this organisation’s remit, its mission is to respond locally and globally to those in need, helping the vulnerable and enabling the community to be prepared and respond.

The individual winner of the Public Health Professional Award 2022 was Sakina Usher, Clinical Laboratory Supervisor, Department of Health.  

Ms Usher has been at the forefront of the battle against COVID from the very beginning, working behind the scenes to ensure supplies and equipment were in place for on island testing. She has overseen all the testing labs involved, and ensured test results were as accurate as possible.

At the beginning of the pandemic, when there were global shortages of supplies including swabs, Ms Usher worked with a team to determine how to get around these issues. The ability for the island to carry out its own testing had a huge impact on the fight against COVID. Her work helped to shape how testing was carried out, and working with various teams to determine best practices, allowed Bermuda to establish robust systems to tackle COVID. Ms Usher worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic, giving up weekends and holidays to ensure that Bermuda always had what was needed for dealing with COVID.

PUBLIC HEALTH AWARD NOMINEES

Organisation nominees:

·Bermuda Chamber of Commerce

·CG Insurance

·Fluid Fitness

·Helix Laboratory

·Ministry of Health – The Vaccination Team

·Project Action

·Siam Thai Massage

Individual nominees:

·Dr. Carika Weldon

·Donna Stowe

·Dr. Kuni Frith

·Laure Marshall

·Michelle Viera

·Marjorie Richardson Caines

·Dr. Raphael Loutoby

·Wendi Moore

The video of the awards presentation is here:

https://www.facebook.com/BermudaGovernment/videos/346003200882399