Couva Children’s Hospital will be put to use says PM

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
Trinidad’s new Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley has given his word that the Couva Children’s Hospital will be put to use.” He was responding to concerns that his Administration would allow the billion-dollar facility, which was started under the former Kamla Persad-Bissessar government, to waste away.
Speaking at a meeting, PM Rowley said that the Cabinet has established an evaluation team to inspect the Regional Health Authorities and their present operations, upcoming plans and the complete delivery of health care services to the people of the country.
Rowley stated that the Couva Hospital and its intended use would be looked at by the committee as it relates to the comprehensive review of the health sector. He contended that the Children’s Hospital was constructed without putting a proper operational plan in place, particularly its staffing and manpower requirements.
He said that the children’s health facility at Mount Hope was underutilized and that all the health institutions were short-staffed. He emphasized that the only way to open the new hospital at this point would be to further diminish the staffing at the other existing hospitals, which would have a negative impact on the efficiency of services.
The PM suggested that it would be imprudent for Government to seek to correct the result of poor planning by the former government, by diverting doctors, nurses and resources from existing hospitals, which themselves were in need of additional resources. He stressed that the country’s overall health care delivery system is generally at risk of further deterioration, while his administration grapples with the task of upgrading the former system.
The Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh recently said at a budgetary debate, that the Couva Hospital at its peak would require 2,700 “able-bodied” people to run it. He said in the first year of its operation, it would need at least 470 persons on staff. “I want the people of Central and South to know you are not being deprived of the use of that facility,” he promised.