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Speaker:The Honourable Basdeo Panday, Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
Date: February 15, 2000
Occasion: Remarks at the Inauguration of the Private Sector Advisory Board of the North West Regional Health Authority
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Ministers of Government;
The Chairman, The Board and the Executive of the
North West Regional Health Authority;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Public Health Officials;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
My Dear Friends:
It is truly a pleasure for me to be here this morning for the inauguration of the Private Sector Advisory Board of the North West Regional Health Authority.
I see the establishment of this Advisory Board as a major development in my ongoing effort to shape a participatory democracy in this country.
Inclusion is the fundamental plank on which a truly participatory democracy is constructed.
That is the direction in which the Government has been working to move Trinidad and Tobago since 1995.
It started with my call for a Government of national unity.
It is to my continuing disappointment that some people rejected my call for national unity and have unrelentingly continued to sow discord in the society; with a certain measure of success, I might add.
In spite of such diversions, the Government has achieved notable success in our effort to bring change to a political culture which promoted paramountcy of the central controlling power by dividing the society laterally, as well as stratifying the society vertically.
We continue work to dismantle a system and to transform a culture in which all effective power was concentrated in the central Government, just as it had been concentrated in the Colonial Office in the days before self-government and Independence.
We have worked to break down the barricades over which business and labour had traditionally squared off against each other, always to the detriment of the common good.
Since 1995, we have worked to mobilise all sectors of the society in the development of Trinidad and Tobago, with the control of the central Government diminishing, and the empowerment of the people at the core of Government�s strategic perspectives.
This is what we have been doing with the Regional Health Authorities.
We are also doing it with the Independent School Boards which will take charge of the running of each Government School.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It was inevitable that I would cross reference Education and Health in my remarks, this morning.
Every Government also has the obligation to make sure that the population is provided with affordable, accessible, quality health care.
In many cases, affordable health care means free health care, for the very vulnerable.
Nothing changes that.
Every Government has the obligation to provide every child with the opportunity for a first class education.
That remains at the top of my agenda.
I am also resolved that every adult should have the opportunity for life-long learning.
On the subject of education, I would take this opportunity to challenge the Private Sector Advisory Board of the North West Regional Health Authority to make public education programmes as important a priority as the delivery of quality health care.
I, take it as a given that every member of the Private Sector Advisory Board of the North West Regional Health Authority has had hands-on involvement in the marketing and communications programmes in their respective organizations.
So while I thank the members of the Advisory Board for agreeing to serve your country through this partnership with the North West Regional Health Authority, I am, at the same time, emphasizing that one of the functions that Dr. Gopeesingh and his Board of Directors, have set you that is to so educate the public that significantly fewer people will eventually require remedial treatment for health problems.
Health education is a dependable route to a healthier nation.
Let me now thank the members of the first Private Sector Advisory Board of the North West Regional Health Authority for agreeing to serve:
Mr. Richard Kellman;
Dr. George Laquis;
Mrs. Joan Charles;
Mrs. Diane Chatoor;
Mr. Kennrick Attale;
Mr. Gordon Deane;
Mr. Len Hackshaw;
Mr. Larry Howai ;
Mr. Raoul John;
Mr. Claude Musaib-Ali.
The Northwest Regional Health Authority has assembled a most impressive Private Sector Advisory Board.
This will be a very potent group for networking - nationally and internationally - on behalf of the Authority, and on behalf of the close to three quarters of a million people who make up the potential catchment segment of the population to whom the Authority is required to respond.
I take this opportunity to thank other corporate citizens who have contributed to the health sector.
Your contributions speak of an admirable sense of civic responsibility, an obligation to "give back" to the community.
I take this opportunity as well, to urge other corporate citizens to become involved.
Health is everyone�s business.
It is not only the job of government, and the Regional Health Authorities, and of public spirited private sector companies.
Public Health is the responsibility of every citizen in our country, including those who have occasion to use the public health facilities.
Public education, health sector reform, new facilities, better trained personnel, better incentives for health care givers, all are part of the prescription for dealing with the endemic malaise of poor say, poor working conditions and poor equipment that have been part and parcel of our health system.
Now we have begun to focus on the improvement of the primary health care system.
Health Centres across the country are being upgraded or rebuilt to bring a higher quality of health care to our communities.
This Project has already begun to ease the burden on our larger institutions, while giving citizens easier, more personalized access to health care.
At our larger institutions, such as the Port-of-Spain and San Fernando General Hospitals, tremendous improvements have been made.
While we acknowledge that there is still much more to be done...reports have been very positive on the developments taking place there.
In the south, the San Fernando General Hospital has been very hard at work, implementing projects to improve the delivery of health care.
I know that a Client Satisfaction Survey, which was conducted at the Outpatients Clinics at the San Fernando Hospital, showed an almost 95% satisfaction rate.
That is a phenomenal rating, ladies and gentlemen.
Please join me in saying Bravo! to the South.
While the journey ahead of us is long, we are confident that we will achieve our objectives.
Over the next 5 years, we will be spending $192 Million U.S. dollars, well over a Billion TT Dollars to continue the improvements we have started in our health sector.
One Project, in which I take particular pride, is the institutionalisation of a National Emergency Health Service.
This project has already begun in two regions, with decided success so far.
This system provides a 24-hour, high quality emergency ambulance service with fully trained staff.
In addition to projects such as these, we are also increasing the focus on our human resources.
Top on the list of our priorities, is to improve the pay packages and incentives for our nurses.
To all the health care givers in our country, including those who work with the non-governmental organizations, I say, thank you very much for what you are doing for so many people in our country.
I must also say a special word of thanks to Dr. Tim Gopeesingh.
He is the only man I know who probably works on more projects at any given time than I do.
Yet he has found the time, not only to meet all of his long standing commitments in his practice and in teaching, but also to make the North West Regional Health Authority the acknowledged success that it has already become.
Now, Tim, has succeeded in harnessing the energies of a group of high achievers, leaders in their own disciplines, in a private sector - public sector partnership that I am confident will be a model for the entire Caribbean Region.
Thank you Tim, and Congratulations on the advisory team that you have put together.
Ladies and gentlemen, my Dear Friends:
May God Bless each and every one of you with good health and good lives.