Dr Harold Munnings
Other Books
In 1965, a fire aboard the cruise ship Yarmouth Castle, claimed the lives of 90 visitors to The Bahamas. The scramble to save the badly burned survivors was centered at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau. The story of this event and others that spurred the development of the Princess Margaret Hospital are told in this volume.
From its origins as a poor house to a modern tertiary healthcare institution, this is a story of calamity, recovery, philanthropy, expansion and growth.
Westward was written to preserve the stories of my parents. My father, who was the first qualified Bahamian civil engineer on the Public Board of Works, helped to influence development of the City of Nassau at a critical time in its history. As a BAAA president and a delegate at the Rome 1960 Olympics, his involvement in sports helped to lay the groundwork for the nation's current prowess. I could not induce him to write the compelling biography that he ought to have penned, so I took it upon myself to do so. The narrative expanded to include my own story.
Pre-medical and medical students and their families will find within its pages valuable insights into the journey of becoming a physician.
Healthcare in The Bahamas traces the development of healthcare in the archipelago of The Bahamas over the last 200 years. The nation's health challenges throughout the colonial era are described. How the country responded to the endemic problems of leprosy and typhoid fever is discussed. The challenging epidemics of polio and tuberculosis are described. The role of the colonial nursing service, nursing education, unqualified doctors and the development of the medical profession is also chronicled in this survey of healthcare that was delivered mostly outside the walls of the hospital.
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Today, residents of The Bahamas are served by several well-trained gastroenterologists. They work hand-in-hand with a cadre of competent surgical specialists as well as trained endoscopy nurses and technicians. It was not always this way.
BellyAche traces the management of digestive diseases in The Bahamas, the arrival of the endoscopic era and the roles played by the modern pioneers in the development of the specialty in the small independent nation of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Princess Margaret Hospital
...highly informative and interesting reading...a seminal work on one of The Bahamas most historic institutions...this work should be highly prized.
Dame Ivy Dumont, DCMG.
"A well-written pioneering volume ... filled with interesting details and information about health personalities and events connected with the hospital...well researched and illustrated, with informative appendices and an expansive bibliography. Academics, doctors, medical staff, students and the general public will welcome this publication... an important contribution to Bahamian historiography." D. Gail Saunders, Historian
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"I enjoyed the book." Sir John Templeton, Philanthropist