CT scan firm: It’s not true

HTI Limited managing director, whose Queens Park CT Centre provides CT scans to Port-of- Spain General Hospital yesterday defended charges of impropriety made by Minister of Health, John Rahael, last Friday in the House of Representatives. In the debate on the Regional Health Authority (Amendment) Order 2004, Rahael said the former UNC administration had awarded HTI a contract under terms that were too favourable. But yesterday HTI (Trinidad) managing director, Rodger Varley, responded. Varley denied Rahael’s charge that HTI had been awarded its contract without tender. “The tender documents are in our possession, and certainly we can provide the names of at least two other organisations that tendered against us.”  

Replying to Rahael’s charge that the hospital was only entitled to two free scans per day, HTI said it had offered these scans as a bonus. “Our success in winning the open tender arose in part because of our offer, not requested, to provide two free scans per day for poor people...”. HTI said it had also won the contract because it had offered discounted scans to patients of the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) which were cheaper than scans in the private sector and scans offered at Mount Hope Hospital.  This was an apparent rebuttal to Rahael’s criticism that HTI CT scans cost $1,200 to $1,900. Rahael had also complained that HTI got $500,000 from the Government, plus exclusive rights for Port-of-Spain General Hospital. But HTI replied: “At the time of the tender we made it clear that we required a once-only $500,000 payment from the Authority, primarily to validate their wish for it to be established as a joint venture.” HTI said that in turn, it had invested $3.5 million to buy the CT scanner.

HTI added: “In order to protect our investment, naturally we insisted on a three-mile exclusion zone from Government setting up competition with ourselves in the capacity of a joint venture ie simple logic.” The firm said it had so far provided over 2,000 free CT scans, worth $2 million, which was “more than any government has ever provided for their people.” HTI had done 6,000 free scans at a discounted price of some $2 million. “We have contributed well over $4 million to the benefit of taxpayers and poor people — a record we are extremely proud of. Does anyone know of any other private health organisation that has provided anything close?” Offering a 24/7 service plus 1,200 out-of-hours emergency scans, HTI said it had saved countless lives. Its operations, said HTI, were a good example of the PNM’s Health Reform Programme initiated under former minister of health, John Eckstein, but now apparently largely forgotten or ignored.