Enill: Work-to-rule will not help pharmacists

Following an August 26 meeting of the Pharmacy Board of Trinidad and Tobago in Woodbrook, some pharmacists reportedly said they would embark on a work-to-rule if their reclassification issues were not settled within a week. Pharmacy Board president Wazir Hosein said he has asked those pharmacists to hold their hand "in the interest of the public" for two weeks while the board meets with the relevant authorities to iron out the situation.

Enill told Newsday yesterday that a work-to-rule by local pharmacists would not help their current situation. He said meetings between the Health Ministry, the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) and the Public Services Association (PSA) are ongoing and there is a specific process which must be followed. He noted that once the CPO decides on a particular result, it was the task of the PSNC to determine whether or not that result was in accordance with Government policy.

Enill dismissed allegations by the Medical Professionals Association of TT (MPATT) that the PSNC was "undemocratic" because the majority of its members were Government senators. He explained that the PSNC, as one of 15 Cabinet sub-committees, has a specific mandate to follow and it reports back to Cabinet on all matters under its purview. The minister added that in this context, there was no way MPATT’s statement could stand up to scrutiny.

Enill said he has not yet received an August 29 letter from PSA president Jennifer Baptiste-Primus which claimed there was a "protracted delay in settling the matter of reclassification of the pharmacists" and that Health Minister John Rahael has shown "a distinct bias" against the PSA on this issue.

Enill said that he had specific matters to deal with within his portfolio and the manner in which Rahael functioned as health minister was not one of them.

Rahael said the 25 percent allowance increase offered to local pharmacists to train Filipino pharmacists brought in to alleviate shortages in the health sector would extend to all pharmacists since the Filipinos would be working in both public hospitals and health centres. The Health Ministry is currently exploring the possibility of making amendments to the existing Pharmacy Board Act in order to allow the Filipino pharmacists to work without the 500 hours of supervision by local pharmacists under the current legislation. Rahael said he has been advised that those amendments would only require a simple majority for passage in Parliament.