Deyalsingh hopeful of blood donation service

Addressing local and international doctors at the start of a three-day symposium on Inherited Blood Disorders at Hilton Trinidad yesterday, Deyalsingh said it was “unpardonable” that the degradation of the physical premises which previously housed the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) at Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain, had to be shut down every time it rained. Deyalsingh said after 11 years of successive governments spending close to 44 billion on the health sector, there were serious issues that are not properly addressed.

He yesterday announced that former director of the Society for Inherited and Severe Blood Disorder TT (SISBDTT), Haematologist Dr Waveney Patricia Charles has been appointed to act until permanent arrangement could be made to fix the broken institution he inherited in 2015.

“On becoming Minister of Health, I found out that TT did not have a Director Medicine at the blood bank since 2011.

How do you run a blood bank without a director? Nobody was applying for the post. I took a note to Cabinet, and we have a very archaic system of appointing people and that is one of the reasons it is so difficult to fill vacancies.” He continued, “You have to rely on offices like the Chief Personnel Officer, Service Commissions and it is just a nightmare to appoint people to get a job description. I went to Cabinet to get the post of medical director at the blood bank suppressed.

You cannot fill it so you have to fill it via contract.” Also speaking at the symposium, President of the SISBDTT Issa Ali said according to the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) one in 10,000 is born with haemophilia, in TT, one in ten has the Sickle Cell trait, one in 15 has the Sickle Cell-beta thalassemia, and haemophilia one in 5,000 males which is equivalent to the WFH’s quote, of one in 10,000 people.

Also in attendance were WFH representative Luisa Durante, patron of SISBDTT Zalayhar Hassanali, and Dr Wayne Frederick, 17th President of Howard University.