Govt seeks 3-year expansion for health sector reform

Government, which has only used 40 per cent of the funds available under the IDB Loan for health sector reform, has applied for a three-year extension, which would bring in substantial funds. This was announced by Health Minister Colm Imbert, who incidentelly, also advised that he would not be travelling to Cuba or any other place for the remainder of this year. The Health Minister also said that the Cuban health personnel who had been assigned to the district health offices were settling in very well. And, he added, the Principal Medical Officer reported that there was much cooperation between the Trinidadian and Cuban doctors, some of whom had already begun to perform surgery. He said “very soon” the second batch of Cuban doctors would be placed into key community health facilities in heavily populated areas such as Couva, Diego Martin, Laventille and Pleasantville.

Noting that the first batch of UN doctors had arrived this week, he said they would be put in “strategic” locations. He said two doctors from Africa had tremendous experience with HIV Aids — one would go to San Fernando and the other to the Queen’s Park Counselling Centre. He said the programme was going exceedingly well. He said while there was still a vocal minority in the local medical fraternity, which was opposed to the programme, the majority of local doctors, like the nurses, had wholeheartedly embraced the initiative to bring in foreign doctors. On their proficiency in English language, Imbert said there was only one Cuban doctor so far who had been asked to do additional training in English. He said the UN doctors all spoke English very well. On the IDB loan, he said the Ministry of Health had signed this agreement with the IDB for US $138 million in 1996 and the agreement officially came to an end on July 12, 2003.  But the total expenditure at that point was $500 million or 40 per cent of the programme budget. He noted that the RHAs had failed to implement the health sector reforms required because of frequent changes in the boards and the absence of strong management over the last seven years. Noting that Government agreed to approach the IDB for a 3-year extension from July 2003 to 2006, Imbert Government would be injecting an additional $500 million into the health sector over the next few years.