Choosing your Paediatrician – Parental Rights

Choosing your Paediatrician – Parental Rights as a topic is an important one but it should not be a stressful one and we hope this short article will provide you with some helpful insight, both about your rights as parents and in how to choose a paediatrician in the Cayman Islands.

In many places around the world, access to a paediatrician is through referral by a GP, who provides the first line of care. In Cayman, it is different. The vast majority of paediatric care here is provided by paediatricians, most of whom are based outide of hospitals and who provide all routine and some complex care needs. So, it is normal here for the adult family members to have a GP and the children to have a paediatrician.

Parental Rights

This is the simple bit. You are fully in control. However, let’s consider the scenarios where a parent finds themselves choosing a paediatrician and examine some of the issues at those stages. It’s a scenario you find yourself facing generally in 4 situations:

• You’ve just move to the Cayman Islands and so do not have one
• You’re pregnant and choosing one to attend birth and provide newborn care
• You have a paediatrician but they are off-island, on vacation or unwell
• You have a paediatrician and you would like to change, for whatever reason (and it doesn’t matter!)

In all of these scenarios, you have complete choice over seeing whomever you wish. As long as the practice accepts your insurance, then there is no real restriction on going to any practice, provided they have the capacity and are open for new patients. Essentially, when choosing your paediatrician – parental rights are explicitly clear by law – it’s your choice and it should be respected.

WHEN PREGNANT

When pregnant, you may have special considerations or needs, such as wanting a paediatrician with a formal neonatal (newborn) training in case there is a complication. If you already have a paediatrician, it’s perfectly fine to do this and you just need need to let that paediatrician know if you intend to return to your established one afterwards. Good paediatricians will be perfectly happy with this and ensure your normal paediatrician gets a good handover or care afterwards.

Occasionally, you may find an OBGYN steers you towards a paediatrician, which can happen most often if they have one in their practice. However, you still absolutely have every right to choose the one you really want and it is a good idea to meet others to be sure. An OBGYN shouldn’t object to your choice of paediatrician and once they know who you have chosen, they should respect that choice. We have many excellent obstetricians in the Cayman Islands, and whether they are openly happy to accommodate a parents wishes is an obvious a useful gauge or factor in whether they are the right one for your pregnancy too.

VACATION & SICKNESS COVER

In the Cayman Islands, the paediatricians all know each other fairly well. They get together at professional meetings and societies, they cover for each other and help each other. You can feel completely confident in asking to see another paediatrician if yours is unavailable for some reason and good paediatricians will ensure a good handover back so your normal one knows what’s happened in their absence.

At Integra, because we have 4 paediatricians and newborn specialists, there is always someone available, and we run an out-of-hours single number system to ensure you always reach someone – (345) 326 4370 – and a during office hours there are always paediatricians available on our main number (345) 745 7450. We will always respect your normal paediatrician if we are stepping in.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

For many, this is the more stressful situation, because underpinning it is a reason. There can be many reasons why people want to change, including:

• For geographical reasons
• They want a practice with better cover, out-of-hours or vacations
• They want to attend the same practice as parents
• For a specific aspect of healthcare where someone specialises
• Unhappy with the service or care from an existing practice
• Child doesn’t seem happy where they are (accepting no child likes injections etc!)

The reason doesn’t matter and you have absolute choice. You do not even have to tell your existing practice why, unless you want to. If you do find yourself wanting to change and do not want to go through even the embarrassment of explaining this, you may simply register with another practice and ask them to acquire the medical notes from your previous one. As paediatricians, we have ethical obligations in ensuring that we facilitate that process so your child is never put at risk. This is very rarely an issue and we are all used to handling this. What might feel stressful to you, is normal to us, so just ask.

Choosing your Paediatrician – Other Considerations

There are many reasons for choosing one paediatrician over another and because it is often a long relationship, you want to choose carefully and well, ensuring a good match to yours and your child’s needs.

We have a whole guide on the sorts of considerations you may have or want to consider.

Choosing a Paediatrician in the Cayman Islands

GRAND CAYMAN- March 22, 2022 – Integra Healthcare Ltd and Workforce Opportunities & Residency Cayman (WORC) are delighted to announce the launch of two innovative healthcare apprenticeships – development programmes for exciting professional healthcare roles, as Healthcare Assistants or Medical Billing & Administrative staff. The apprenticeship scheme will provide the opportunity for young and/ or healthcare-passionate Caymanians to gain Internationally recognised qualifications alongside direct work experience, while being paid an escalating salary in line with their growing competency.

Katherine Whittaker, Head of Labour Demands, Development and Training for WORC, explained; “It is vital that our Caymanian population is able to participate in modern, professional industries such as healthcare and schemes like this one provide a genuine route to two different professional roles, but without the financial barriers so often preventing capable individuals from gaining the necessary qualifications.”

Head of Education, Director and Consultant Paediatrician & Neonatologist for Integra Healthcare, Dr Sara Watkin added; “I have long been involved in mentoring Caymanian students wishing to train in healthcare, and the block Katherine speaks about is very real. I see some amazing people that just need a route in, and so we created these programmes to provide employment from day 1 but alongside protected and paid for study programmes for professional qualifications. I couldn’t be more proud to finally be pressing the go button.”

The Healthcare Assistant Apprentice Programme, initially 3 healthcare apprenticeships, is based around a similar and hugely successful scheme in the UK, aimed at growing technically competent, knowledgeable and safe staff that can work in care provision, alongside nurses, but without having to fund years of nursing degree courses. Integra has the largest team of private ambulatory, non-hospital, registered nurses, across Women, Children & Family Medicine, with Dermatology, allowing the apprentices to be comprehensively mentored but also across a range of disciplines or specialties too.

The Medical Billing & Administrative Apprentice Programme will allow individuals to be trained under the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), the largest medical coding training and certification association for medical billers and coders, working on the same Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and International Classifications of Disease (ICD) coding systems used by Cayman health insurers. The role is a highly important one, leading to proper payment for services and thus the stability of medical practices in the Cayman Islands.

Andrew Vincent, Director of Integra Healthcare, commented; “We have grown Integra into the largest private, non-hospital medical practice in the Cayman Islands based on our reputation and our four cornerstone values of Excellence, Integrity, Commitment and Passion. That has given us the scale necessary to offer these programmes, in a professional and employment environment that genuinely supports and values its staff. We have always said that we feel very privileged to be able to provide healthcare services in such an amazing location, and so alongside our passion for improving and innovating in healthcare, our commitment is to also ensure we provide genuine employment or growth opportunities for the very people who so kindly allow us to share their very special home.”

Kimone Chambers, Programme Coordinator for WORC, who worked alongside the Integra team to help establish the programme, stressed; “We always want to make sure that Apprenticeship Schemes are properly organised, with appropriate commitment from the employers. However, even more important is that the employer has the right environment and support mechanisms to ensure apprentices feel supported and mentored and therefore are able to carry through into employment. Integra Healthcare definitely has what it takes, and I am looking forward to welcoming the first cohort of apprentices.”

There has been a global growth in internships, apprenticeships and other entry-into-work schemes, and Dr Francisco Martinez, Medical Director and a GP at Integra, believes it is important to differentiate between low commitment, low wage schemes and professional development programmes such as this; “It is important to us that individuals gain recognised, career-supporting qualifications and get the quality of training they need to be fully fledged, highly valuable members of a professional team. We don’t subscribe to the concept of ‘cheap labour’ and so the salaries for these roles start much closer to a living wage level, not a minimum wage one, and grow with the skills and qualifications of the apprentices, through their healthcare apprenticeships. By the end of the programme, they have gained a fully-paid-for set of recognised qualifications, lots of practical experience, and employment on standard terms for these professions.”

Individuals wishing to discover more about the Healthcare Apprenticeships Opportunities with Integra can visit https://integra.ky/apprenticeships or contact WORC at worc.training@gov.ky or 938-5360.

About Integra Healthcare Ltd

Integra Healthcare Ltd is the largest non-hospital private ambulatory clinic in the Cayman Islands, based out of Grand Pavilion on West Bay Road, with 11 doctors across Women’s, Children’s and Family Medicine, with Dermatology. With a strong history or innovating and in investing in latest technology, they were the first clinic in the whole Americas region to bring the latest Artificial Intelligence FotoFinder for assisting in the detection of Skin Cancer, as well as the latest nanotechnology point-of-care platform for providing advanced analysis of micro-blood samples without the need for sending them to a laboratory. The practice is a champion for implementing evidence-based care and preventative, personalised medicine, built around 4 core values of Excellence, Integrity, Commitment & Passion.