Rahael promises training on all new equipment

ALL FUTURE agreements to purchase medical equipment for the nation’s health institutions will have mandatory clauses for the training of personnel to use that equipment and for the maintenance of that equipment. This was the disclosure yesterday from Health Minister John Rahael, speaking with reporters at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) after he received a $3,086,915 shipment of neonatal and surgical equipment for the Mount Hope Women’s Hospital.

Rahael said: “All pieces of equipment that we are purchasing, with it will come training and maintenance. We have a one-year warranty training for our personnel who will actually be using the equipment and also for the technicians. All of that is part of all our purchases and that’s a standard procedure that we will be adopting from now on. The suppliers are in fact providing training for the personnel who will be using the equipment and this equipment is really not brand new to the workers in the hospitals. We also have our in-house technicians who are familiar with this equipment and we don’t anticipate any problems in that area.”

The Minister then revealed that a group of 16 Regional Health Authority (RHA) personnel who recently underwent training in diagnostic equipment in Germany have returned home, and another 12 are due to leave for training in Germany later this month. These persons are being trained to use critically-needed diagnostic equipment being supplied by Siemens of Germany to the nation’s hospitals since January. “We are exposing our personnel to as much training as possible because of the importance of training and to ensure that they are exposed to actually doing the work with the machines,” the Minister explained.

Rahael said tenders have gone out for additional neonatal equipment and expressed optimism that a second shipment would arrive in two weeks time. The Minister, however, disclosed that although yesterday’s shipment arrived in the country last Wednesday, the smaller pieces are “already in use” and he was confident that the remainder would be in use by the end of next week. He added that in addition to Mount Hope, new neonatal equipment will be sent to the Port-of-Spain and San Fernando General Hospitals. Yesterday’s shipment included 12 incubators, ten cardio-pulmonary monitors, 15 cots, two ventilators, six humidifers and one blood gas machine. The equipment is being supplied by AA Laquis, LC Villafana, Trinidrugs, Bryden Pi, Western Scientific and Promed.