Yvette Dilbert knows Faith Hospital. She knows it so well; she was chosen to give the vote of thanks to all those who had played a part in its development and its recent renovation work at the reopening ceremony.

As hospital administrator, she had first-hand knowledge of most of the work that had gone on.

Ms Dilbert is one of several staff members who have worked at the little hospital for decades, joining as a volunteer in 1973 – the year after the hospital was completed.

She worked as a nursing assistant in 1974, became a registered nurse and worked in a variety of roles including as a nurse manager and being responsible for the emergency room and for disaster preparedness.

“I’ve been here almost from the beginning,” said Ms Dilbert, a born and bred Cayman Bracker.

She said the staff of the hospital had faced challenging times during the renovation work, especially after Paloma, having to move to temporary locations every few months.

“This was a very complex and challenging project for everyone involved and for the entire community. And just when the project was going well, along came Paloma, which almost devastated our island and the project was no longer renovation, but recovery as well.

“That was about 16 months ago, but as always we endured the hardships, worked together as Brackers and came back stronger than ever,” she said.

“Thanks to the hard work, generosity and dedication of so many people, we somehow managed to keep delivering quality healthcare to this community while conducting major renovation to our beloved Faith Hospital and improving the ability of this facility to serve the needs of the Sister Islands.”

While long-serving members of staff like Ms Dilbert and colleagues Carol Sue Ryan, Mavelyn Martin and Dana Scott, have been witnesses to the changes that the hospital and the Island has undergone over their years of service, there is also a new crop of potential medical professionals stepping up to work at Faith.

At February’s reopening ceremony, two 17-year-old interns were honoured for their work and their ambition – Kodie Scott who hopes to become a dentist and Kelcey Smith who wants to work in the field of pharmacy or nursing.

The director of the Sister Islands Health Services, Dr. Srirangan Velusamy said: “We are excited that last year we got two student interns. They are very bright.”

Kelcey said she was interested in becoming a pharmacy technician. “I’m enjoying everything about the work. I can actually see myself doing that, and educating people and working with computers,” she said.  

Minister of Health Mark Scotland presented the two students with inspiration books at the reopening ceremony.

Mr. Velusamy said they would work at the hospital as interns for a year and would be regularly given advice on their career path.

The hospital will continue to seek out talented and motivated students each year to identify those who may want to go into medicine.

“Every year, we are going to go to the high schools, year 11 and 12 stage and identity the talent and interest and then we can train them,” he said.

The only problem, he admitted, was the youngsters were so promising, the hospital may lose them to Grand Cayman.