Gopeesingh knocks Welch Reports

He said the reports are without depth and substance and he didn’t see anything in it that would merit sending it to a joint select committee.

Dr Gopeesingh made the comments while responding to a motion in the House on Wednesday, by Leader of the House and Minister of Planning and Development, Camille Robinson-Regis that a Joint Select Committee be set up to consider the First Report of the Committee which was set up to review levels of health care delivery by the Regional Health Authorities; And to Rationalise the System of Public Sector Doctors in Private Practice as well as a second report of the committee to review the levels of health care delivery by the regional health authorities and rationalise the system of public sector doctors in private practice.

The reports, known as the Welch Reports, were laid in the House on November 9 and March 24, 2017, respectively.

Robinson-Regis asked that the Joint Select Committee review and analyse the reports; consider their findings and recommendations and report their observations no later than June 5, 2017. Dr Gopeesingh said that the best people to talk to about the health system were the specialists in the country and wondered whether the Welch Committee had talked to any of these specialists.

He said there were 200 specialists and there was no indication in the report that they had been spoken to in the preparation of the report. Citing his own extensive experience in the health system, he said the issues dealt with in the Welch Report were management issues and questioned the motive for bringing the motion to the House as he said that there had been exhaustive reports on the local health system, including the Gladys Gafoor Commission which produced 1,500 pages of recommendations.

He added that there were 180 doctors in the country who are waiting for jobs and most of them had completed their studies on scholarships. He said the specialists trained at the University of the West Indies were among the best in the world.

Also speaking on the motion was member for Oropouche East Dr Roodal Moonilal, who said if the Government believed that the findings of the committee had merit then they could have simply implemented the policies rather than asking the Opposition for support. He also said there is already a Standing Joint Select Committee on Health and it would be better to send the report to that Committee.

He asked why it was necessary to replicate a Joint Select Committee of which he said there were already 17. He said it was simply a case of wasting Parliamentary time, having important ministers wasting time on a Committee, adding that in any case the time set out by the Leader of Government Business was too short as June 5, 2017 was only a few days away.

He said setting up a Joint Select Committee was not important, but what was important was getting drugs in the hospital and that the Government had alternatives to what they wanted to do which,he said, was wasting time when they could be doing something tangible.

Speaking first on the motion was Dr Lackram Bodoe, who said that after crime and the economy, health care is of great concern to the nation. He said that the country’s health care is in crisis and has deteriorated under the current Government. During his presentation, he was pulled up repeatedly by the speaker of the House, Bridgid Annisette George, who reminded him that the motion was not an opportunity to debate the report itself.