On November 6, Suriname’s Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Labor André Misiekaba formally confirmed in the National Assembly (DNA) that three specialized surgeons at Paramaribo’s Diakonessenhuis hospital have turned down a government-mediated compensation proposal, deepening a months-long payment dispute that has already halted their care for patients covered by the state-run Staatsziekenfonds (SZF) public health insurance scheme. The dispute traces back to a previously undisclosed monthly supplementary payment of SRD 300,000 that the three surgeons received on top of their standard procedure-based earnings, a benefit the former SZF leadership first flagged as unsubstantiated in August 2023. After SZF administrators failed to receive any formal documentation justifying why only these three surgical specialists qualified for the exclusive top-up, and no comparable payments were extended to other practicing surgeons across Suriname, the fund froze all disbursements earlier this year, triggering widespread discontent within the national surgical professional community over unequal treatment. When National Democratic Party (NDP) parliamentarian Silvana Afonsoewa raised the issue during a plenary session, she issued a stark warning that ordinary patients were bearing the brunt of the administrative and financial standoff, noting the three surgeons perform high-stakes, complex pediatric and oncological operations that no other small pool of specialists in the country can deliver. Afonsoewa criticized the SZF for abruptly cutting off payments without first negotiating a formal, mutually agreed new compensation framework with the medical team, emphasizing that fair remuneration for specialized medical staff must be balanced against the non-negotiable priority of uninterrupted patient care. In an attempt to de-escalate the impasse, Misiekaba held direct negotiations with the three surgeons and their legal representative, putting forward a transitional compromise: a retroactive monthly supplementary stipend of SRD 200,000 to cover the period since payments were paused, while a cross-sector working group conducted a full review to design a standardized, transparent, equitable long-term compensation structure for all specialized surgical staff nationwide. The three surgeons formally rejected this proposal shortly after the talks concluded, and notified the ministry they would no longer accept or treat any SZF-insured patients, leaving dozens of pre-scheduled operations in limbo. Misiekaba clarified that his administration will not reinstate the original SRD 300,000 exclusive top-up, as such a non-transparent, unequal arrangement cannot be justified with public health funding. Instead, the ministry is now exploring an alternative payment model already successfully implemented at the Academisch Ziekenhuis Paramaribo (AZP), where supplementary stipends for specialized clinical staff are disbursed directly through hospital administrative channels rather than paid as direct, unregulated transfers from the SZF. As a temporary stopgap to prevent life-threatening care disruptions, the ministry has launched a full audit of all patients currently under the three surgeons’ care or with pre-booked procedures, and has reached a formal agreement with AZP to take over all urgent surgical cases immediately. Misiekaba noted he cannot yet release exact figures on the total number of affected patients or the full scope of non-urgent procedures that may need rescheduling, but confirmed ongoing closed-door negotiations with Diakonessenhuis leadership to resolve the standoff as quickly as possible, with full updates scheduled to be submitted to the parliament’s permanent Public Health Committee once a formal draft agreement is finalized.
分类： health
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Health Officials Host Bloomberg Representative for Tour of Gray’s Green Eye Care Unit
Senior officials from Antigua and Barbuda’s Ministry of Health, Wellness, Environment and Civil Service Affairs recently hosted a high-level delegation led by Adrienne Pizatella, representative of Bloomberg, for an on-site inspection of the newly operational Primary Eye Care Unit housed within the Gray’s Green Community Centre. The official visit was overseen directly by the portfolio’s cabinet lead, Honourable Minister Michael Joseph, with additional support and participation from Ambassador Aubrey Webson. The carefully curated tour was designed to offer the international delegation a first-hand look at the incremental infrastructure and service upgrades rolled out at the community-focused eye care facility, while underscoring the national government’s multi-year strategic roadmap to dismantle long-standing barriers to affordable, timely vision care for residents across the twin-island nation. As a core component of the administration’s broader public health mandate, the Primary Eye Care Unit is engineered to shift critical vision health services away from centralized hospital settings and directly into residential neighbourhoods, enabling earlier screening for common degenerative eye conditions, faster intervention for preventable sight loss, and more equitable access to routine eye health support for underserved populations that previously faced significant travel and cost hurdles to receive care.
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Nearly 63% of Eligible Women Screened for Cervical Cancer in Antigua and Barbuda
As the official 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Spouses’ Programme kicked off, Antigua and Barbuda’s leading public health expert presented the nation’s groundbreaking, years-long progress toward eradicating cervical cancer as a public health threat to a global audience of Commonwealth stakeholders. Dr. Cherrie Tulloch, who leads the island nation’s National Cervical Cancer Elimination Task Force, walked attendees through the country’s actionable framework, tangible outcomes, and replicable best practices during her featured address at the launch event.
The national strategy, Dr. Tulloch explained, rests on three non-negotiable foundational pillars: unwavering high-level political backing for public health priorities, the relentless dedication of frontline care teams (with a specific nod to the critical role of nursing staff across all community and clinical sites), and coordinated cross-border partnerships with regional and global health bodies. The national HPV vaccination programme first launched in 2018, and was followed by a carefully phased rollout of evidence-based HPV DNA testing: a successful pilot demonstration project ran between 2022 and 2023, before the service was expanded to every community across the country in 2025. Jointly administered by Antigua and Barbuda’s Ministry of Health, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and non-profit global health partner Basic Health International, the full programme has leveraged digital health record systems to streamline screening workflows, automate patient reminders, and eliminate gaps in post-screening follow-up care.
By October 2025, official public health data confirmed that 62.9% of all women eligible for cervical cancer screening across the country had completed testing, putting the nation on a fast track to hit the World Health Organization’s global 70% screening coverage target well ahead of projected timelines. The expanded screening network has also identified 411 women with positive HPV test results who received immediate, targeted follow-up care, a milestone that underscores that screening efforts only deliver meaningful impact when paired with seamless access to timely diagnosis, evidence-based treatment, and long-term patient monitoring.
Drawing on half a decade of on-the-ground implementation experience, Dr. Tulloch shared tailored guidance for other Commonwealth member states working to advance their own cervical cancer elimination goals. She urged national health authorities to adopt fully integrated, long-term sustainable models that link every step of the care continuum: HPV vaccination, routine screening, diagnostic services, curative treatment, and ongoing patient support. Additional actionable recommendations included scaling widespread public education campaigns to counter widespread community misconceptions and harmful social stigma around HPV, expanding access to care through innovative solutions such as at-home self-sampling kits and extended after-hours clinic operations, and investing in robust, interoperable health information systems to reduce gaps in patient tracking and enable real-time programme performance monitoring.
For lower-resource nations that are just launching their cervical cancer elimination roadmaps, Dr. Tulloch advised first conducting a full audit of existing health system capacity, identifying and elevating dedicated champions within both government leadership and local community groups, building new programmes on top of pre-existing, well-established primary care services, and prioritizing knowledge-sharing with peer nations that share similar demographic, geographic and economic contexts. She emphasized that cervical cancer elimination is not an unattainable aspirational target, but a fully achievable public health milestone – one that demands consistent, multi-year national commitment, dedicated sustained funding, and cross-sector collaboration. For small island developing states across the Commonwealth and beyond, Antigua and Barbuda’s carefully documented, results-driven experience provides a practical, tested blueprint to boost preventive care uptake, catch cases at the earliest possible stage, and eventually eliminate cervical cancer as a preventable cause of death.
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Health Minister Michael Joseph Pushes for Earlier Cancer Detection
Fresh on the heels of the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) hosted in Antigua and Barbuda, regional health stakeholders and government representatives gathered for a targeted collaborative session focused on turning the Lancet Oncology Commission’s evidence-based cancer care frameworks into tangible, on-the-ground impact for low-resource member nations across the Commonwealth. The convening was explicitly designed to address longstanding systemic barriers that have stymied progress on equitable cancer outcomes, particularly for small island developing states and lower-income Commonwealth members that face chronic shortages of health infrastructure, dedicated public health funding, and standardized population health data. During closed-door deliberations, participants mapped out actionable pathways to leverage the Lancet Oncology Commission’s rigorous research outputs to strengthen national cancer surveillance systems, standardize cross-border data collection protocols, and generate context-specific empirical evidence that can inform more responsive, people-centered national cancer control policies. Delegates centered much of the conversation on the stark, well-documented disparities that leave 70% of cancer patients in low and middle-income Commonwealth nations diagnosed at late, largely untreatable stages, a crisis that drives exponentially higher mortality rates and unsustainable strains on already overstretched public health budgets. A core shared priority that emerged from the talks was a collective call to reorient national health investment away from costly, late-stage cancer treatment interventions that many resource-limited systems cannot reliably sustain, and redirect a far larger share of funding and policy focus to scalable prevention initiatives, public awareness campaigns, and expanded accessible early screening programmes that can catch malignancies at curable stages. The session also laid the groundwork for a formal multi-stakeholder partnership that will connect national health ministries across the Commonwealth directly with the Lancet Oncology Commission’s global network of oncology researchers, public health practitioners, and donor partners, to streamline access to cutting-edge research, fill critical gaps in health system capacity, and direct limited available funding to high-impact, evidence-backed interventions proven to reduce preventable cancer deaths. All participating delegates emphasized that the core value of the Lancet Oncology Commission’s work lies not in academic publications or non-binding policy recommendations, but in targeted, context-adapted implementation that delivers tangible, life-saving benefits for marginalized communities, with a specific focus on uplifting the most vulnerable small and developing Commonwealth member states that have long been excluded from global cancer care advancement efforts.
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Tobacco Bill Targets Advertising and Youth Access
On November 4, 2026, public health authorities in Belize are advancing long-awaited sweeping tobacco control legislation through the national Senate, paired with a historic first-of-its-kind national training program for 100 frontline healthcare workers to deliver targeted nicotine addiction support to residents. The proposed Tobacco Control Bill, which has already secured passage in the House of Representatives, is drafted to fully align Belize’s regulatory framework with the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a global treaty designed to curb preventable tobacco-related mortality that claims more than 7 million lives annually worldwide. The wide-ranging provisions of the bill include near-total restrictions on all forms of tobacco advertising, mandatory graphic health warning labels on product packaging, strict enforcement mechanisms to block underage access to nicotine and tobacco goods, and a major expansion of designated smoke-free public spaces to reduce harmful secondhand smoke exposure. While health officials frame the policy as a life-saving intervention that addresses two of Belize’s top leading causes of death, tobacco-fueled cancer and cardiovascular disease, a cohort of long-term smokers and small hospitality business operators have raised targeted concerns about potential unintended economic fallout for local bars and restaurants. Lifelong smoker Nancy Nye shared anecdotal evidence of a local eatery that temporarily implemented a voluntary indoor smoking ban to appease non-smoking patrons, only to lose all of its regular smoking customers without gaining new non-smoking clientele, forcing the venue to roll back the policy to remain financially viable. Nye argued that overly strict public smoking rules would push many patrons to consume alcohol and tobacco exclusively at home rather than frequenting local hospitality venues, cutting off critical revenue for small businesses that rely on their customer base. To mitigate the public health burden of tobacco use, the newly trained frontline healthcare teams will deliver personalized cessation support for all interested Belizeans, including tailored quit plans, dedicated mental health counselling via National Drug Abuse Control Council outreach workers, ongoing regular follow-up check-ins, and access to evidence-based nicotine cessation medications at no extra cost through the public health system. Dr. Dongbo Fu, a WHO tobacco cessation expert, noted that regional tobacco usage rates across the Caribbean remain stagnant at roughly 20% of the total population, making Belize’s proposed legislation a critical step to reverse decades of slow progress in reducing preventable tobacco-related harm. Kevin Bernard, Belize’s Minister of Health and Wellness, emphasized during the bill’s initial House introduction that the policy is designed to protect both current and future generations from the catastrophic health, social, and financial harms of tobacco use, including household financial strain that diverts limited family budgets away from food, essential medication, and other basic needs to fund tobacco purchases. Esner Vellos, Director of Belize’s National Drug Abuse Control Council, confirmed that the comprehensive cessation support program will be fully inclusive and accessible to all residents, no matter their location or socioeconomic status. Dr. Marvin Arthurs, a Medical Officer for Belize’s Central Health Region, added that tobacco’s harms extend far beyond individual physical health to erode family dynamics, drive chronic conditions including hypertension, and drain limited household resources that could otherwise be spent on critical health services for all family members. As the bill moves to the Senate for formal debate, public health officials and community stakeholders are weighing the life-saving long-term public health gains against targeted adjustments that could address small business concerns while delivering on the core commitments of the WHO global tobacco control treaty.
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Breast cancer survivor shares journey in new memoir
When Anne Marie Herman walked into a routine mammogram appointment in September 2005, she expected a standard clean bill of health that would let her go back to her daily life with a reminder to return for screening 12 months later. What she received instead was a life-altering breast cancer diagnosis, a turning point she describes as one of the most unforeseen “detours” on her life’s path that would reshape her entire perspective on existence. That transformative journey is now laid bare in her newly released memoir, *Doing It My Way? With Prayer, Persistence and Detours*, which officially launched to the public in September of this year.
The memoir weaves together a full narrative of Herman’s life, from her modest upbringing to the milestones she reached through education, deep familial bonds, and abiding personal faith, before centering the grueling stretch of treatment that followed her diagnosis: invasive surgery, rounds of chemotherapy, and a prolonged period of physical and emotional upheaval where no outcome was guaranteed. In an interview with the St Lucia Times, Herman emphasized that her path to recovery was far from a story of unbroken fearlessness. “I am human, and there were difficult moments,” she acknowledged, noting that while her spiritual faith provided steady comfort through her darkest days, and her own stubborn persistence pushed her to take one small, manageable step forward at a time, she never claimed to be free of anxiety. True perseverance, she explained, is not the absence of fear, but the choice to keep moving forward even when fear is present, a feat she could never have pulled off without the unwavering support network of loved ones who stood by her through every phase of treatment.
Translating that deeply personal, traumatic chapter into a published book came with its own set of emotional hurdles. Putting pen to paper forced Herman to revisit long-buried memories of medical uncertainty, exhausting treatment sessions, and quiet, intimate moments of vulnerability shared with her family and care team. She was intentional about framing her story honestly, refusing to gloss over the pain of her experience while also rejecting the idea that her cancer battle should be allowed to overshadow the full, rich scope of her life.
The aftermath of her recovery rewrote Herman’s entire worldview: she developed a sharp, new awareness of how precious every ordinary day is, rejecting the habit of taking small, mundane moments for granted, while deepening her appreciation for meaningful connections, small acts of kindness, and unrushed time spent with the people she loves most. She is adamant that while breast cancer is a significant chapter of her life story, it never became her entire identity. “It has also reminded me that life can change unexpectedly. I cannot control every turn, but I can choose how I meet it,” she shared.
Even the question mark placed intentionally at the end of her book’s title is a deliberate, thoughtful choice. Herman explained that while she has always strived to make her own choices and chase her personal goals, her life path has never been entirely within her control, shaped as much by unforeseen external circumstances and the generosity of people who supported her as by her own decisions. For her, “doing it my way” now means taking full accountability for her own choices, while staying open to unexpected guidance, unplanned shifts, and serendipitous new opportunities she never could have planned for.
If she could travel back in time to speak to herself the day of her 2005 diagnosis, Herman says she would urge her younger, terrified self to take life one single day at a time, stop stubbornly refusing offers of help, hold fast to her faith, and remember that feeling fear does not have to mean fear gets to dictate her entire future. Now, she is sharing that lesson far beyond her own inner circle, hoping her memoir will serve as a source of gentle encouragement for other people navigating their own devastating, unforeseen hardships. She wants readers to understand that no single traumatic experience has the power to define their entire lives, and that holding onto hope even in the darkest moments can help them uncover new joys and possibilities they never could have imagined.
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Regional healthcare leaders unite to enhance cancer care and diagnostic equipment at Baha Mar workshop
A cohort of healthcare practitioners, medical specialists, and global public health partners from across the Caribbean convened at Baha Mar this week for a three-day targeted workshop focused on advancing regional cancer care frameworks and addressing longstanding gaps in the upkeep of critical diagnostic radiation medical equipment. Titled “Strengthening Operations and Maintenance of Diagnostic Radiation Medicine Equipment in the Caribbean”, the event marks the first official activity under the Accelerating Scientific Collaboration and Excellence in Nuclear Technology (ASCENT) initiative, a joint bilateral partnership between the United States and United Kingdom designed to scale the peaceful, safe, and secure deployment of nuclear science applications for public good.
Delivering opening remarks, U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Kimberly Furnish emphasized that the Caribbean had long lacked a dedicated, cross-border forum centered on cancer care and nuclear medicine infrastructure, noting that the region’s shared geographic ties, shared ocean ecosystems, and shared collective future make coordinated action a moral and practical imperative. Furnish added a personal, human touch to the proceedings by sharing that her own mother had just completed treatment for lymphoma and celebrated her recovery the week prior, ringing the official end-of-treatment bell at her care facility. “Every single piece of diagnostic equipment we will deliberate over this week exists to serve a patient waiting for a clear, timely answer about their health,” she told attendees. Furnish stressed that while purchasing new diagnostic tools is a relatively straightforward first step for health systems, building sustainable, long-term maintenance systems to keep that equipment operational for years is the far greater, underaddressed challenge that the workshop was designed to solve.
The three-day event agenda includes structured knowledge-sharing sessions with subject matter experts from across the Caribbean, as well as representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), focused on aligning regional practices with global safety guidelines and rigorous quality standards. Attendees will also participate in on-site visits to the Cancer Centre Bahamas and Princess Margaret Hospital to assess existing diagnostic infrastructure firsthand, and collaborate to draft actionable sustainable financing proposals that will be presented to international financial institutions and private sector partners to unlock funding for expanded diagnostic services across small island nations. Furnish also announced a key new U.S. contribution to Bahamian cancer care: Washington has provided targeted funding to the IAEA to procure two new mammography machines that will be donated directly to public health facilities in The Bahamas. She noted that leading U.S. diagnostic imaging and radiation technology firms are participating in the workshop not to pursue immediate sales, but to build long-term collaborative partnerships that will help regional health teams keep their existing equipment running consistently and reliably for years.
Acting Prime Minister of The Bahamas Chester Cooper echoed calls for deepened cross-regional collaboration to reduce stark disparities in healthcare access that disproportionately impact small island nations across the Caribbean. He framed cancer as a universally personal crisis that touches nearly every household in the region, noting that almost every Bahamian has a family member, neighbor, or close friend who has faced a cancer diagnosis. “A single cancer diagnosis can upend the financial and social stability of an entire household in the space of 24 hours,” Cooper stated. “Our entire public health response must be centered on the patient, rooted in clear, accessible information, timely diagnostic testing, compassionate treatment, and continuous wrap-around support for patients throughout their entire care journey.” He added that all solutions drafted during the workshop must be tailored to the unique operational constraints of small island developing states, with explicit planning for post-delivery equipment upskilling, workforce retention for specialized technical roles, and adaptive service delivery models that can evolve to meet shifting public health needs over time.
Health and Wellness Minister Dr. Michael Darville framed the workshop as a historic opportunity to unify regional resources to turn the tide against cancer, with a specific focus on expanding early detection capacity, and establishing standardized safe handling and disposal protocols for radioactive materials used in diagnostic medical equipment. Local medical oncologist Dr. Tracy Roberts-Halkitis flagged breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers as the three highest-burden cancer types driving mortality in The Bahamas, and pushed for expanded public education campaigns to counter widespread misinformation about cancer risk: she clarified that while hereditary genetic mutations do contribute to some breast cancer cases in the country, the vast majority of diagnoses are sporadic, non-inherited cases that occur in women with no prior family history of the disease. She emphasized that regional screening programs must be expanded beyond breast cancer to include routine, accessible testing for prostate, colorectal, and cervical cancers as well. Cancer Centre Bahamas President and CEO Dr. Conville Brown closed out the opening session by arguing that prevention and early intervention remain the most cost-effective, high-impact public health strategies to reduce regional cancer mortality, and called for far more sustained public outreach to encourage all Bahamians to schedule regular preventative health check-ups even when they are not experiencing obvious symptoms. -
Chirurgen Diakonessenhuis behandelen voorlopig geen SZF-verzekerden meer
On November 4 at 10:51 local time, Diakonessenhuis Hospital in Suriname formally announced that all surgeons affiliated with the medical institution have ceased providing non-emergency and scheduled care for patients covered by the national public health insurer Staatsziekenfonds (SZF), effective immediately. The abrupt policy shift stems from an undisclosed ongoing conflict between the group of surgical specialists and the state-run health insurance fund, with no official details released to the public regarding the core points of contention between the two parties. The joint statement signed by the hospital’s general management, medical leadership, and nursing executive team warns that the sudden suspension poses severe, cascading risks to the accessibility and unbroken continuity of surgical services for the tens of thousands of local residents who hold SZF coverage. As of the initial announcement, critical information for affected patients remains unconfirmed: hospital administrators have not published data on the total number of patients impacted by the measure, provided clear guidance on the status of pre-scheduled elective operations, or outlined formal contingency protocols for individuals requiring urgent, life-saving surgical intervention. Hospital leadership emphasized that every available internal resource will be deployed to resolve the impasse and restore normal surgical operations as quickly as possible. The statement expresses deep regret over the disruption to patient care, and calls on all parties involved in the dispute to prioritize patient welfare above all other considerations to reach a swift, mutually acceptable resolution.
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Congrats to Alexander-Ross on election to Caribbean Nurses Organization Board
A highly respected Vincentian nursing administrator and seasoned industry advocate, Shelly-Ann Alexander-Ross, has secured a key leadership post on the Caribbean Nurses Organization (CNO) Board of Directors, earning the role of Region 4 Director via an unopposed ballot during the group’s 34th Biennial Meeting and Conference hosted recently in St. Kitts and Nevis.
In her new official capacity, Alexander-Ross will serve as the designated representative and oversight lead for six nations under Region 4: Barbados, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Guyana, and her home country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Founded as a unifying regional umbrella entity, the CNO unites national nursing associations and frontline nursing professionals across the Caribbean archipelago, with a core mandate to elevate the nursing sector through cross-border collaboration, targeted professional development, leadership cultivation, evidence-based advocacy, and systematic improvements to nursing education and clinical practice standards. The organization also functions as a collective platform for regional nurses to tackle shared systemic challenges, disseminate peer insights and on-the-ground practice experiences, shape public health policy, and drive tangible improvements to healthcare access and population health outcomes for all Caribbean communities.
The 34th Biennial Meeting and Conference that hosted the election drew over 200 participants spanning nursing leaders, academic educators, frontline clinical practitioners, nursing students, and health policymakers representing 19 distinct Caribbean countries and territories, creating a dedicated space for targeted sector dialogue, professional networking, evidence exchange, and coordinated action to advance regional nursing priorities.
Local nursing stakeholders have highlighted the critical foundational role of the Nurses Association of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in nurturing Alexander-Ross’s leadership trajectory, noting that her decades of hands-on experience across association leadership posts—including past tenures as secretary, vice president, and president of the national body—paired with deep engagement in local and regional trade union movements, have equipped her with robust expertise in stakeholder representation, policy advocacy, collective bargaining, and worker rights protection.
Upon her election, Alexander-Ross shared sincere gratitude for the widespread, enthusiastic support, congratulatory messages, and well wishes she received from nurses across St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the broader Caribbean region. She framed her new appointment as a meaningful opportunity to drive tangible, inclusive progress for the regional nursing profession, while ensuring the unique priorities, unmet concerns, and professional aspirations of every nurse in Region 4 are centered in CNO governance and programming.
The landmark election has been hailed as a source of national pride for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, serving as public recognition of the consistent leadership, unwavering dedication, and transformative contributions that Vincentian nursing professionals have long brought to the wider Caribbean healthcare ecosystem. In an official commentary on the achievement, Orde Ballantyne extended warm, heartfelt congratulations to Alexander-Ross, describing the win as a well-deserved milestone rooted in her long track record of service. Ballantyne expressed full confidence that Alexander-Ross will leverage her extensive institutional knowledge, cross-sector experience, and deep commitment to nursing excellence to deliver meaningful, lasting advancements for the profession across the Caribbean as she embarks on this new chapter of regional leadership. The views shared in the commentary are explicitly those of the author and do not necessarily align with the official editorial position of iWitness News, which accepts opinion submissions for consideration via its designated editorial email channel.
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Antigua and Barbuda and Saudi Arabia Hold Bilateral Meeting
On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, The Honourable Michael Joseph, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Health, Wellness, Environment and Civil Service Affairs, officially received a high-level official delegation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a closed-door bilateral consultation session, held immediately following the conclusion of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) hosted earlier that week on the Caribbean island nation. The Saudi visiting team was led by Dr. Hanan Hassan Balkhy, the Kingdom’s official nominee for the upcoming World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General election. Accompanying Dr. Balkhy for the bilateral exchange were three senior Saudi health sector officials: Mr. Rakan Bin Dohaish, senior advisor to the Saudi Minister of Health, Mr. Abdulwahed Alhamili, International Cooperation Officer stationed at the Saudi Ministry of Health, and Mr. Dante Emmanuel, personal assistant and senior policy advisor to Dr. Balkhy. The dialogue between the two sides is understood to cover cross-border public health collaboration, shared priorities for global health system strengthening, and mutual alignment on WHO governance priorities ahead of the upcoming leadership election.