Just over one month into assuming his multi-faceted ministerial role, the Honourable Michael Joseph, Minister of Health, Wellness, Environment and Civil Service Affairs of Antigua and Barbuda, has launched a comprehensive review of his portfolio’s operations, kicking off with a landmark collective gathering of senior leadership from all subordinate agencies and departments.
Given the broad scope of the Ministry’s governance mandate, which covers a wide spectrum of public services from public health to environmental management and civil service administration, Joseph organized the all-department meeting to create an open platform for dialogue, break down inter-departmental silos, and map out the most urgent challenges facing the portfolio. The meeting gathered top technical officials and department heads from every corner of the Ministry, offering attendees a rare space to lay out their teams’ ongoing work, recent wins, pressing concerns and operational bottlenecks, while also building a deeper understanding of the complementary work carried out by peer departments.
The list of attendees included Permanent Secretary Stacey Gregg-Paige and senior headquarters staff, alongside representatives from 20+ specialized units and institutions: the Central Board of Health, AIDS Secretariat, Antigua and Barbuda Emergency Medical Services (ABEMS), National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), Fiennes Institute, CARE Project, Clarevue Psychiatric Hospital, national clinics and polyclinics, Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS), Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre (SLBMC), Nutrition Unit, Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, Department of Environment and Civil Service Affairs Department.
In his opening remarks to the gathered leadership, Minister Joseph urged all participants to maintain unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality public services, and to sustain proactive efforts to lift service standards across every agency and unit under the Ministry’s umbrella. He emphasized that greater internal cohesion is non-negotiable for effective public service delivery: while every department holds a unique, specialized mandate, all units are deeply interconnected, and their collective performance directly shapes how well the Ministry delivers on its core health, wellness, environmental and civil service commitments to the public.
“Many of the challenges we face do not exist in isolation,” Joseph told attendees. “As a Ministry, we must work more closely together, communicate more effectively, and support one another in order to deliver the highest standard of service to the people of Antigua and Barbuda.”
Looking ahead, the new minister outlined his next steps for stakeholder engagement: he will continue holding one-on-one or small-group meetings with management teams across individual departments, but will also add direct engagement with frontline and entry-level staff at all levels of the portfolio. Joseph closed by reaffirming his core governing approach: centering listening, cross-stakeholder collaboration, and incremental continuous improvement as he works alongside all Ministry stakeholders to refine operations and upgrade public services for the benefit of all Antigua and Barbuda residents.