Page 36 - UWI MEMORY BOOK

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DASILVA, P. Abdon
1974 Biography 2018
I entered private general practice in July 1977 after three years rotation through the various disciplines at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, having set my eyes initially on becoming an Obstetrician/Gynaecologist. Suffice it to say that I had had enough of hospital- based medicine.
During my internship year, I was part of the fight for overtime pay and other allowances that hitherto the junior medical staff was not privy. This struggle was the embryo of what soon became the Junior Doctors’ Association that I later headed.
I was subsequently nominated to the Executive Council of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners as its Public Relations Officer and rose to its presidency one year later. As its public relations officer, I served on the joint University of the West Indies/ Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners Continuing Medical Education Committee in 1996 and remain a current member. For my contribution to this cause, I was awarded the Annual UWI/BAMP CME Award in 2002.
I returned to head the Association and is currently serving my fourth term in that post. In 2011, I was awarded the prestigious BAMP Annual Award for my contribution to the organization.
I have served on the Barbados Medical Council and as its Chairman was a member of the steering committee in Kingston, Jamaica that saw the creation of the Caribbean Association of Medical Councils (CAMC).
My most recent appointment has been as a member of the National Non-Communicable Disease Commission of Barbados and I currently serve as the third Vice-President of the Congress of Staff Associations and Trade Unions of Barbados (CTUSAB).
I am a founder and life-member of the Barbados Chapter of the UWI Medical Alumni Association and served as a member of its first executive committee. Until recently I taught medical students at my private practice during their family medicine rotation.