Imbert: 100 UN doctors to help ‘burnt-out’ locals

The presence of 100 volunteer United Nations volunteer doctors will bring relief to local doctors who are “burnt-out” from overwork, Health Minister Colm Imbert said yesterday.

He also anticipated improvements in the level of health care provided, provision of 24-hour service at health facilities and an ex-panded range of services. Imbert said “quite a few” local doctors have accumulated a large number of compensatory days because of working six and seven days weekly as well as public holidays. With the additional doctors in the system, Imbert said they will be able to “take a rest and come back recharged and revived.” The UN volunteers are part of a foreign contingent of medical personnel which includes Cuban doctors and nurses recruited by Health Ministry to deal with the shortage in the health sector. Speaking at a media briefing at the UN House, Chancery Lane on the Government-  United Nations Devel-opment Programme partnering for “institutional strengthening and support to the Ministry of Health,” Imbert thanked UNDP for the “tremendous gift,” and the 17 UNVs in attendance for deciding to work in TT. Among the group are two doctors who specialise in sexually transmitted diseases and an Ophthalmolo-gist.

Imbert said unlike with the Cubans there is no language issues with these UN doctors. He said they “can go straight into the system without difficulty.” The doctors will begin work at various health facilities by the end of next week. Four of them have been assigned to Port-of-Spain General Hos-pital, four to Couva District Health Facility, two to Arima District Health Facility and one each to San Fernando General Hospital (Gen-eral Practice—Clinical Management of HIV/ AIDS), Mayaro District Health Facility, Eric Williams Medical Sci-ences Complex (Paedi-atrics), Chaguanas Health Centre and Queen’s Park Counsel-ling Centre. Commenting on specialised surgical programmes which the Ministry intends to introduce to deal with the backlog of cases, Imbert said the Oph-thalmology team to deal with cataracts has been put together. It will comprise an Ethiopian UNV doctor, three Cuban nurses specialising in Oph-thalmology and a local Ophthalmologist. Imbert said rooms and a building are being prepared. Laser and other equipment will be in TT by November and then the eye surgery programme should be “up and running.” 

Imbert said he hoped to see 50 surgeries done weekly and 200 a month so that the backlog of people requiring eye surgery can be cleared in six months. As more UN doctors arrive more specialised teams will be formed. Imbert said at present there are 6,000 people on waiting lists for surgery. UN Resident Repre-sentative Inyang Ebong- Harstrup assured the Minister that the re-maining 83 doctors will be here by December. She said the  UNV programme offered a high quality of technical ex-pertise in a wide field. Under the US$12,313,236 agreement between the Health Ministry and UNDP, the doctors will be contracted for periods up to three years, during this time the Ministry will formulate a plan to retain local doctors when the UNVs leave TT.  Imbert told the media that although government subsidised a large portion of medical students’ tuition costs at the University of the West Indies they could leave the health system and work abroad. He said government will be seeking an arrangement to have the subsidised doctors work for a “compulsory period of time.” Imbert said this will deal with the “initial shortage.”