Emergency medicine specialist Dr Romayne Edwards opened her Remedy & Wellness Medical Services in Cross Roads, St Andrew, on Thursday with big plans to bring affordable medical care to those who need it.

Mandeville-born Dr Edwards, a consultant emergency medicine physician in the Accident & Emergency Unit of the University Hospital of the West Indies, cut the ribbon to mark her foray into entrepreneurship last Thursday evening at the medical facility’s location — Shop 6, Sampras Plaza (formerly Empire Plaza) on Retirement Road.

Remedy & Wellness Medical offers various services, among them weight management, pap smear, rapid testing for HIV, check-ups, comprehensive medicals, asthma management, blood sugar testing, blood pressure testing, and cholesterol testing.

Dr Edwards’ colleagues and friends lauded the former Manchester High School Girls’ Athletics Championships team captain and former discus thrower for venturing into entrepreneurship at a time when people are seeking medical comfort outside of the public system which faces countless challenges — among them unlimited waiting time, particularly at hospitals and health centres.

“This is a bold step that I have taken and I hope to serve the communities in proximity of the Cross Roads area and beyond,” Dr Edwards told the Jamaica Observer. “I always wanted to become an entrepreneur. I am passionate about medicine, so it makes it easy to serve the people who really need to be looked after. This is another phase of my life and I hope that those whom I will see, medically, will be satisfied that they will be looked after with compassion, diligence, respect and discipline,” said Dr Edwards, who also writes occasionally for the Observer.