This morning (2009-07-26) I am moved by the Trinidad Express triangulating on the ridiculous situation in Health Services dong on dee Rock. I’ll excerpt from core pieces of the Express – but note, that does not mean I support all the opinions expressed. (photos are hyperlinked from TT Express with full credits given to the Express).
See the Poll at the end of this post.
Read Dr Lall Sawh’s interview with Nazma Muller of TT Express: We’re stoning the messenger which is a long one and continues in tomorrow’s Express. (Dr Sawh pulls no punches. Guess why? He eh need to clean dee TT Gov’t arse, to make a livin’!! See it here: Foreign patients seek medical treatment in T&T - people flyin’ een from overseas fuh dee man to operate on dem. Yuh t’ink he cyare much for what Narace t’ink about him? Like no!)
“LS: The point is, we're training a lot of doctors in this country, eh. Why are they leaving? You see, we're not addressing that issue. Why are they leaving? If things were so hunky-dory here, who would want to go in a foreign country and put up with that?…
..NM: You see, what he's done is sidelined the main issue. Instead of coming with numbers-we had 100 patients with prostate cancer last year and the waiting list is two years. If he had come to Parliament with those facts and figures the media all now would be delving into that...
LS: But do you know that they've been saying that over and over? I don't agree with the dramatic way he put it over. But I think there is some virtue in that he got the attention of the whole country and that is what we needed. Why has it taken a whole year? These doctors who have left didn't leave yesterday morning, you know. I left at the end of 2007 and the service, nobody was aware of it. I mean, the Ministry must know. North West [RHA] must know. Nobody attempted to repair the deficit. Nothing was done until he [Gopeesingh] came in this rather bizarre manner and introduced it. … Dr Sawh’s views are armour-piercing! Do continue to have a good read at TT Express: We’re stoning the messenger.
And den a shrink from London in dee UK, in – TT Express ‘Letter of the day’ Doctor shortage sign of incompetence – gives Tattoo some home truths.
“Colm Imbert, in a report in the Express on July 23, said that there were 2,400 medical posts unfilled, and half of those (that is 1,200) represented a chronic shortage. Mr Imbert - formerly a health minister back in 2003 - reminds us that the chronic shortage of doctors in T&T existed before 2003 and as far back as the 1950s. What an admission of gross maladministration and incompetence! ..
..It appears to me that Imbert is bent again on aping, as he did in 2003, the strategies used by Thatcher (in England). He comes nowhere near Mrs Thatcher's intellectual prowess in her heyday. I said in 2003 that Imbert was living in cloud cuckoo land. It seems that he has now taken up permanent residence there - and now he has company! Happy, they all are. Sad will be the people of T&T who expect high-quality, first-world-like health services on the approach to 2020.”
Boy, he eh pullin’ no punches eidda. Yuh see he and Sawh in dee same boat. Dey not muzzled and dey not busy cleanin’ arse.
And here we have Narace looking like if he was just released from 
St. Ann’s madhouse – yapping about how he go investigate how some patient was beaten to death in the madhouse! Hear Narace nah: “Although I trust that this is a unique circumstance and does in no way reflect on the care provided at the hospital overall, both I and the executive management team and staff at the Ministry of Health and the (North West Regional Health Authority) NWRHA clearly and unequivocally condemn this and any other form of negligence at any health facility in Trinidad and Tobago…” Unique circumstance? Well eef allyuh believe dat, allyuh was surely born dis morning.
Then there is a very sad story - Premature baby left to die - of this young lady, Carrie Chang, who delivered (she claims) a 27 week baby which was left in her arms to die at Mt. Hopeless. “They let my baby die because a paediatrician, who could not even speak English properly, insisted that my baby looked like 25 weeks. How is that even right," she asked. Note the issue of ‘linguistic competence’ – as mentioned by the shrink in Doctor shortage sign of incompetence.
