New health strategy for Trinidad and Tobago

Minister of Health Dr. Fuad Khan has announced Cabinets approval to have increased staff –including private doctors and nurses, and longer opening hours at Health Centres throughout the country, as measures to reduce the number of patients visiting the major hospitals.

Speaking at the Post Cabinet press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair on Thursday, Minister Khan said the plans were part of a new strategy to improve the delivery of health services in Trinidad and Tobago.

He also announced another aspect of the plan will be infrastructural projects, which includes the start of the Children’s Hospital in Chaguanas. He said government will engage the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) to be project developers and managers. The Minister said the cost of the strategy was being worked out to be taken to Parliament in two weeks. He also expressed confidence in Udecott, saying they had experience in similar type of projects.

Other projects to follow will include the “National Oncology Centre, the Arima and Sangre Grande Hospitals, the Sangre Grande Enhanced Facility, the Port of Spain Hospital and administration building; the Pt Fortin Hospital and increased bed space at the San Fernando Hospital”.

Minister Khan explained, “We are looking at health as a holistic approach. However the culture of the RHA’s and the health industry is starting to change due to the new strategy which is to increase working hours at Health Centres and increasing the usage of Health Centres as operating theatres, for bed (space) and emergency and trauma services to reduce the load on major hospitals.”

He said the “majority of citizens go to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments and have a long wait and sometimes the customer service areas leave a lot to be desired. By bringing Health Centres closer to the people it will decrease the load on major hospitals.”

He said the strategy will include the use of health professionals in “private practice to give of their time” which would facilitate the Health Centres to be opened either on a 24 hour basis or at least up to 10 pm in certain areas. Minister Khan said currently Centres are closed at 2 pm and operating theatres at hospitals at 4 pm.

He said local doctors and nurses will be used and only when the supply is exhausted, would foreign professionals be outsourced.

A further initiative will be the use of “unqualified younger nurses who would like to do nursing, to employ them in public health institutions and allow them to move forward to become nurses”.

Minister Khan said private doctors and nurses have expressed a desire to work and in terms of payments a package will be worked out “to keep them and us happy”.

The Minister acknowledged there is a backlog by at least eight months in surgical, pathological and diagnostic services and it was Governments intention to build specific diagnostic centres to do CT scans, MRIs and other services to decrease the load on the General Hospitals.

He was confident that the plan would not only reduce the backlog, but improve the health system in the future.

In terms of neurological services, Minister Khan said Government will explore having the “Port of Spain and Health Offices around the San Fernando hospital utilized for observations, and only if need be for further management for the patients to be transferred to a major hospital”.

Source: The Habari Network