KAMLA: OPEN THE COUVA HOSPITAL
The Minister of Health, Mr Terrance Deyalsingh, and the Rowley government are spreading misinformation about the Couva Children’s Hospital while keeping the facility closed.
Today I am calling on Mr. Deyalsingh to come clean and tell the people the truth about the hospital and about health care in Trinidad and Tobago. I ask him to tell the country how he plans to address the overcrowding at hospitals across the nation and to explain the facts about why his government does not want to open the Couva Children’s hospital.
Health was a top priority of People’s Partnership administration and that is why we built that Children’s hospital, a teaching hospital and started construction on two others. We did all this alongside constructive plans for improving services at major hospitals and primary care centres across the country.
The fully equipped Children’s hospital remains unopened only because Mr Deyalsingh and the Rowley administration lack the ability to administer the health services and create the jobs needed to staff the hospital. Instead they have found every irrational reason to justify their inaction while overcrowding, lack of necessary medicines and frustration have become principal features of our hospital system.
I wish to reject the propaganda and state that the Children’s Hospital is fully equipped and ready for use. All that is needed is the political will and a sensible approach to its administration.
If a government can tell us that it lacks the ability to coordinate its health policy to make effective use of a state of the art hospital that’s equipped and ready for use, then it is not fit to govern. Mr. Deyalsingh is not presenting an honest picture when he states that the hospital requires a staff of two thousand (2,000). The radiography department alone, needs only a fraction of that to commence operations.
Further, Mr. Deyalsingh is not telling citizens that a significant number of personnel are for maintenance and administration, and that there are already the required number of trained staff and personnel to make this hospital fully functional. Additionally, there are a number of medical graduates and trainees readily available to work at the hospital.
My Deyalsingh must state why he and the PNM administration have not advertised for any of these positions.
The time has come for the Minister to either identify what plans he intends put in place to rectify the current situation, or hand over the portfolio to someone who is capable.
OFFICE OF THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
17th JANUARY 2016
i think this is going out to the wrong people, your supporters does not need convincing of the readiness of the Children’s Hospital, you need to have a public press conference on national tv and radio highlighting what is presented here to me.
Also why are you not hounding the Prime minister (Rowley) to get rid of the ministers with baggage like they were doing to your government when you were in power. Time to return the favor and pressure the government highlighting their misteps as they were doing to you.
Why now Garcia now going to the Commission of Enquiry into the Las Alturas housing failure, and not before, is it only because he just remembered what happened, or is it because he in public office again, and don’t want Rowley to look bad.
Come on people you all are too quiet in Parliament, demand and hound out answers from the new Prime Minister and his government, as they were doing to you.
I have one last point to raise, i want you to raise noise pollution regulations with the EMA and parliament, when those music trucks are on the road on their way to and from their locations keep their music off, and when they reach on locations then they turn on their noise at the rediculous levels that they play it. These Music truck drivers have no considerations for the time they disturb the neighbourhood neither do they have regard for the elderly, newborn babies, infants and more so working people that have to get up 4 am in the morning to deal with the traffick situation that is just getting worse.
I hope you take my comments with an open mind and look into the issues that i wrote about in this comment and act on it immediately, honestly i have lost hope in the agencies EMA, Childline, family court, police service and the whole set of those offices where the employees only report to work to get a salary and not do the job they’re being paid to do. i call them “Leaches in Office” taking a salary for doing absolutely nothing, thats just my personal experience in those offices. Shame on them.