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The administration of many ministries of government is in continuous decline, while the politicians have wasted tons of money and seek to blame each other when the decline is exposed as a crisis.
In that scenario, the politicians and the ministries put out paid advertisements, Facebook posts and media releases, as well as make brusque statements—all designed to make the public believe that the government is on top of things, or soon will be, because policy “evolutions” and “paradigm shifts” are taking place.
In addition, the politicians look for openings to victim-blame the citizens when there is a problem.
The communications are frequently dissembling. Some recent newspaper reports concerning the Health Ministry exemplified the true state of affairs.
It is to be emphasised immediately that these reports refer to spans of time in which one or the other of the two major political parties were in office and both failed at the same thing.
(Copyright Newsday)
The one that was most shocking in terms of money wasted is the report that a sod was turned for a National Oncology Centre (NOC) in 2007. Different administrations had responsibility for the failed project.
“Over a decade later, and after hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain, it was scrapped in 2019” – Sunday Express 19 November 2023.
A few days before that newspaper report of the failure to deliver the proposed NOC, public health officials appeared before a Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Social Services and Public Administration for the purpose of “an enquiry into Trinidad and Tobago’s response to the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (with specific focus on diabetes, cardiological diseases and cancer)”.
One of those public health officials was the decorated Chief Medical Officer, Dr Roshan Parasaram (the CMO).
Arising out of credibility he earned during media conferences in the time of the Covid 19 pandemic lockdown, when the CMO speaks we listen. The office of CMO falls under the Ministry of Health but arguably the credibility of Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh MP is not nearly at the same height as that of the CMO.
(Copyright Ghansham Mohammed/GhanShyam Photography/Wired868)
The CMO reminded the JSC of the high rate of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and said that the rate of NCDs being seen today were the symptoms of an epidemic that started 20 years ago.
He reportedly warned, as members of the JSC expressed concern at the annual costs of managing NCDs: “If we don’t stop it now, I guarantee, even with a 500-bed tower in Port of Spain General, Arima… we won’t have bed space.”
The prevalence of diabetes is at the heart of the developing NCD crisis and the CMO spoke to the JSC of the need to drive change in lifestyles, particularly among younger generations.
(Copyright Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868)
The Ministry of Health claimed “a range of programmes aimed at encouraging lifestyle change, some in collaboration with the ministries of Education, Sport, and Agriculture.” ( Trinidad Express 17 November 2023). Can we believe them?
A few days later, the Minister of Health was stridently quarrelling with diabetes sufferers for not taking their medications despite all the freeness they allegedly get and he asked: “What can we do better to inform and educate them to simply take the medication?”
It would be good for the Minister of Health’s accountability rating, if he would account for what became of the program, which was set up in collaboration with world-renowned Johns Hopkins and known as The Trinidad and Tobago Health Sciences Initiative. It was reportedly active between 2006 and 2014 and spanned two different administrations.
I have asked about this twice before. It might have the answer to the Minister’s question about self-care.
One “pride point” of the program was the “diabetes outreach program that facilitated coordinated care and reduced the burden of disease and its complications.” Another “pride point” was “a pilot home hypertension management program”.
After Minister Deyalsingh’s outburst, reported last Sunday, an editorial in the Newsday observed:
(Copyright Office of Parliament 2021)
“We need to inform and target groups more at risk and have complex conversations instead of opting for simplistic approaches bordering on hectoring. If more people are aware they are at risk and why, they are more likely to act proactively.”
I wish the Minister would take that advice and engage in fewer pomposities.
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