Dr. Dirk Belfonte is making himself available for temporary relief at various medical practices in the Cayman Islands.
This LOCUM service as it is referred to, been hailed as imaginative and is new to Cayman as a locally offered entity, states a press release.
‘In speaking to many local doctors, I found that the biggest problem that they had was finding a suitably qualified doctor to cover their practices in their absences. Many had to close or divert their patients elsewhere,’ he said.
‘The continuity of care for these patients would then be disrupted as many of them had all their records at a particular practice.
‘There are also doctors on the Island who have been working flat out since the hurricane and having to deal with repairs to both their homes and businesses. These people need a break but find it complicated and expensive to get doctors from abroad.’
With this new service, doctors can plan vacation, study or personal time and book Dr. Belfonte to cover their office in advance. There is no hassle of bringing someone in and arranging tickets, work permits, housing, vehicles or Medical Board licensing.
Dr. Belfonte graduated in 1993 from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and became fully registered with the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom in 1995.
He worked in emergency medicine in Trinidad for two years with a special focus on child health and spent a further two and a half years in the accident and emergency department of the George Town Hospital.
He is accredited in the UK as a specialist general practitioner and practised there for five years prior to returning to Cayman. He has been a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London for over five years and has completed diploma studies in Child Health and Medical Law.
‘I am of a mind set that allows me to fit in to any practice and go with the flow in order to achieve as much continuity as possible. I am interested in satisfying patients who believe in the service offered at a particular doctor’s practice by providing as similar a service to the high standard that they have come to expect,’ he said.
The target practices would be family medical practices and general practitioners who focus on specialist internal medicine in children or adults
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