Tag Archives: Ministry of Health

The photographs were difficult to ignore. Long lines outside the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital. Elderly patients waiting patiently in chairs. Family members guiding parents and grandparents through crowds. Faces filled with hope, anxiety and exhaustion. All for cataract surgery. Not cosmetic surgery. Not experimental treatment. Not some futuristic robotic procedure available …

“[…] In his 1971 book The Mechanics of Independence, ANR Robinson wrote that: ‘As financial rewards are lower in the less developed country, the decisive factor of keeping its skilled people from emigrating are likely to be career opportunity and job satisfaction.’ “Simply put, if we do not value our …

At six o’clock one morning not too long ago, a woman sat quietly outside a public clinic with a numbered card in her hand. She had arrived before sunrise. Not because she wanted to—because she had to. Her eyes were failing for months. The headaches were becoming more frequent. Work …

“[…] Ordinary citizens know the challenges all too well: waiting lines that stretch for hours before a doctor can be seen; appointments pushed months into the future; shortages of essential medicines, forcing families to search from pharmacy to pharmacy at unaffordable prices. “Equipment is outdated or broken, leaving patients without …

My experience at the Arima hospital today was mixed. It was mostly sweet, mind you. Everyone who I came into contact with—from security to medical staff—was polite and professional, while the facility itself was clean and orderly. The wait for a simple procedure was long, though. For a synopsis of …

“She have the flu,” he said, when I asked about his daughter, who sounded weak and listless on the phone. Her symptoms? Fever, body aches and headache. I told him it sounded like dengue, and he should probably get her tested. It baffled me that no one in the household …

The report of the investigating team of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) into the death in April this year of seven babies in less than a week in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Port of Spain General Hospital (POSGH) has been delivered. In clear terms it …

I was brought up in a household that loathed pretentiousness. Had my mother, Celia, been alive she would have been wryly amused at the buss pipe in the new Ministry of Health multi-million dollar palace. The uncontrolled gushing of water can be seen as symbolic of the gushes of words …

Last week I closed by referring to our democracy’s dysfunctional concentration on personalities and tribal loyalties. This dysfunction acts as a distraction and an excuse for our politicians having to propose policy-based resolutions to our problems. It is a dysfunction with a long history. In July 2003 I asserted as …

Regrettably, sharp comment is invited by the recent verbal tactics that the Minister of Health deployed in response to the deaths of seven babies at the Port of Spain General Hospital between 4 and 7 April, connected with a bacterial outbreak there. Perhaps the Minister is not aware that there …

Eleven babies have died in the space of a three-month period in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the Port of Spain General Hospital (POS General). Seven of these eleven deaths took place in less than a week during this month, reportedly the result of “an outbreak” of …

Obtaining blood when persons need it can be a harrowing experience.  Very recently, I felt it vicariously while a comrade urgently required blood. Eighteen months ago, on 30 August 2022, the Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh MP issued a message concerning blood donation, which created misgivings in some of those …