Online Bookstore:
Speaker: The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: July 27, 2000
Occasion: Remarks at the Commissioning of the Couva District Health Facility at Couva, Trinidad
My Brothers and Sisters:
The completion of this new Couva District Health Facility is a special pleasure to me.
The completion of this new Couva District Health Facility is also a special relief to me.
This medical centre is long overdue.
The prior absence of a modern health facility in this area is inexplicable, utterly inexplicable.
I cannot imagine what perverted planning policy could have justified the failure of three previous administrations to establish, as an urgent priority, a proper medical centre conjointly with the development and never-ending expansion of the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.
The only possible explanation for such glaring neglect is that there must have operated a calculated policy of selective marginalisation in this matter.
It could have been, I suppose, that our immediate precursors might have convinced themselves that they would have been around for such a long time, that they could afford to coast on declared intentions which were never to be translated into action.
We have, after all become accustomed to the distinct tendency of the 1991-1995 administration to proclaim past intentions in the face of virtually every effective action by my administration.
All of that apart, my brothers and sisters:
Couva now has a modern medical facility, and that facility is adjacent to Point Lisas and within the populous environs of the massive Point Lisas Industrial Complex.
The Southern businessmen and visionaries responsible for the conceptualisation and establishment of Point Lisas, will be happy that this facility is now in place.
This Couva District Health Facility is a long overdue addition to the national health care system.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Despite the many obstacles that we have had to overcome, the planned transformation of our health sector is proceeding, full steam.
Today�s health sector, our health care facilities, are a far cry from what the country had to put up with in the past.
In 1995, the health sector was defined by old, rundown and dilapidated health care facilities.
Derelict and non functioning equipment, severe overcrowding, were the order of that day.
There were Perennial shortages of drugs and equipment, non existent ambulance services.
My administration has had to work flat out to deal with these and other pandemic problems in bringing health care facilities and services to respectable levels in this country.
A tremendous amount of work has been and is taking place at the major hospitals.
The Port of Spain and San Fernando hospitals are being transformed beyond recognition from what they were four and a half years ago.
The Wards have been upgraded.
New equipment has been installed. New facilities have been established.
Upgraded programmes have also been undertaken at the St. James Medical Complex and the St. Anns Hospital.
Primary care facilities have been either rebuilt or refurbished across the country.
I give you a few examples:
The Barataria Health Centre.
The Matelot Health Centre.
The St. Madeline Health Centre.
The Woodbrook Health Centre.
Refurbishment or reconstruction works are underway at 22 health centres.
These are at such places as Rio Claro, Cumana, Cedros, Moruga, El Soccorro, Laventille, Princes Town and La Brea.
Similar work is set to start at another 25 health centres, in a few months.
In a major project, construction on the new $85 million, 100-bed Hospital in Tobago starts early next year.
Over the past year, over $40 Million has been invested in new equipment for the country�s health institutions.
Five years ago, the drug budget for the public health institutions was $48 Million dollars.
Every year since then, the drug budget has been increased.
In the current fiscal year, the drug budget is $89 Million.
This is an increase of almost 100 percent.
Over twenty new ambulances are in the public health system, to transport patients between health care institutions.
In addition, the National Emergency Ambulance Service has been introduced in the South West and Central regions, and in Tobago.
Cabinet has already given approval for the expansion of this service to the rest of the country.
Training of all categories of medical personnel has been accelerated.
The training of doctors has increased from 35 per year, to 45 per year.
The training of Pharmacists has been considerably ungraded, from a Diploma programme to a Bachelors Degree programme.
The training of District Health Visitors and District Nurses has continued.
My Dear Friends:
For reasons unknown, in 1995 the previous Government had discontinued the training of Nurses and Nursing Assistants.
We restarted the training of Nurses in 1996, with an annual intake of 100 trainees.
In 1999, we increased this to 200 trainees.
This year, we further increased the intake to close to four hundred.
We reintroduced the nursing apprenticeship programme which had been stopped.
One hundred and twenty nursing students are now receiving training.
We have also reintroduced the Nursing Assistant Training Programme, with three batches of 100 each.
We have reintroduced the single trained midwifery programme, as well as a scrub technicians programme.
To ease the workload on our trained nurses, we have introduced Patient Care Assistants to assist in performing non technical duties on the wards.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am particularly pleased that for the first time, free cardiac surgery is available to the children of this nation.
In the past, children with heart disease had to be taken abroad for corrective surgery.
Some who could not afford remained at home to die.
Together with a number of service organisations, the government has started a programme for children urgently in need of cardiac surgery.
So far, sixty children have had successful heart surgery, free of charge, in this programme.
The Government has allocated three million dollars to the programme this year.
We also have a special programme in place to reduce HIV/AIDS among children.
In addition to immunizing children against Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Tetanus, Polio,
Measles, Mumps, Rubella and Yellow Fever, Government has now introduced the Hemophilus Influenza vaccine for children.
This vaccine is to protect children from pneumonia and meningitis.
My Dear Friends;
My Brothers and Sisters:
It would be unfair to accuse my administration of neglecting the health care needs of the population.
A budget comparison between the year 1995 and the current budget year provides compelling proof of the priority we have attached to our health sector.
In 1995, in what was an election budget, the previous administration allocated only $654 Million to health.
$592 Million was for Recurrent Expenditure.
$62 Million went to Capital Expenditure under the Public Sector Investment programme.
In contrast to the previous administration�s miserly approach to the health sector, the Budget allocated to Health in the current fiscal year is in the region of $950 Million.
$142 Million is for Capital Expenditure under the Public Sector Investment Programme.
Over $800 Million goes to recurrent expenditure.
We care about the welfare of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
Our caring is to be translated into action that will have the historic dimensions of the abolition of the Common Entrance Examination and the introduction of Free Secondary Education for Every Child.
Cabinet has agreed to the establishment of a National Health Insurance Scheme.
Under the National Health Insurance Scheme, every citizen, irrespective of the citizen�s ability to pay, will have guaranteed access to all health care services.
The National Health Insurance Scheme will revolutionize health care in this country.
No one shall be excluded.
The Pilot Phase of the National Health Insurance Scheme is scheduled to start toward the end of this year.
All of this is in fulfilment of our obligation to ensuring equal opportunity and a better life for every citizen.
To these ends,
We have effectively reduced the price of foodstuff with the removal of VAT on a range of staple items.
We have reduced income tax.
We have moved our senior citizens above the poverty line through successive increases in old age pensions.
We have made it illegal to pay any worker less than $7 an hour.
In all of these measures, we have put the people first.
In the same way, we have put the children first in the new education system.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
This new Couva District Health Facility is but another instance in which caring has been translated into concrete action by my administration.
I commend and thank everyone who has contributed to the planning, the implementation and the completion of this facility.
I thank Dr. Hamza Rafeeq for the personal interest he has taken in moving this project from intention to implementation in record time.
I trust that the patients who will be attended at this Couva District Health Facility will be in care of dedicated, motivated medical personnel, who will enjoy first class working conditions, in a quality working environment; and who will be exposed to no frustrations, no distractions, in fulfilment of their obligation of their profession to put their patients first.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
With great pleasure, and with great relief, I now declare the Couva District Health Facility open.
May God protect all who will give care and all who will receive care at this institution.
May God Bless every one of you.
Thank you.