By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AFTER a relative of a traffic fatality victim from Long Island complained about the level of care he received, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said he thinks “we must find a better way for emergency medical services” on the Family Islands.

The Tribune previously reported that Mandie Constantakis, 20, Trevon Roxbury, 18, and Manoli Constantakis, 18, were two minutes from home when their Nissan Infinity crashed into a residence in the settlement of Mangrove Bush around 9pm on Friday.

Roxbury and Mandie were pronounced dead at the scene, however Manoli was airlifted to New Providence where he later died from his injuries.

His mother, Amber Constantakis, said doctors in New Providence told her Manoli could have survived if he had been brought in sooner.

She said on Sunday that it took police and the doctor on the island more than an hour just to reach the scene of the crash and it took the nurse about an hour to get there. Mrs Constantakis said the air ambulance arrived for her son about five hours after the crash.

Yesterday, Dr Darville told reporters he had concerns about the state of emergency ground transportation on Family Islands.

“I do not know the extent whether or not the individual (would have) survived or not, but I am concerned with the fact that in our Family Islands ground transportation for medical emergencies needs major improvements,” he said.

He said he has visited all the clinics throughout the Family Islands and can say “unequivocally that something must be done”.

“I believe the days are gone when individuals who are in any sort of traumatic event are placed on the back of a truck and try to get to the facility or get to the airport. I believe we must do better. I think we must find a better way for emergency medical services on our Family Islands and as a matter of fact we intend to bring a paper to address that. Address the manpower shortages at our clinics. I’ve visited the clinics - there’s no handyman and a lot of things that need to be done around the clinic, preventative maintenance, all of these things are necessary and we’re moving in that direction.”

Dr Darville addressed the issue of funding to provide resources to these communities.

“One of the criteria for infrastructural upgrades in the Family islands in our clinics is tied in with an IDB loan. We are in the process of activating the parameters of that loan and resources will be provided through that loan facility to improve our clinics and look at the manpower resources as well as the physical plan and get them to a standard that I feel is consistent on what we need to provide throughout the country.”

He said officials are looking at ways to improve air ambulance transport from the Family Islands.

“We believe sometimes there is a lag time coming from New Providence and we must look at level one and level two degrees of trauma and we must do better. That’s all I can say, but I can tell you that this administration we’re looking at it and we intend to put some resources to try to correct it.”