Let the Cubans come

WITH Friday's passing of the Medical Board (Amendment) Bill, the  way has been cleared for Government's registration and recruitment of Cuban doctors to work in Trinidad and Tobago. As a consequence of this move, we can confidently expect three important benefits: First, a significant improvement in the delivery of public health services in our country as these doctors fill the many vacancies existing in state health institutions. Secondly, the public will no longer be held to ransom by striking doctors who have repeatedly abandoned their jobs, creating crises in the nation's state hospitals and severe hardships for poorer ailing citizens. Thirdly, the recruitment of Cuban doctors will be Health Minister Colm Imbert's first major "blow" at breaking the mafia-like stranglehold which a small group of senior doctors exercise over the public health service.

When, during the "protests" by junior officers, the Minister first proposed the idea of obtaining doctors from Cuba, this newspaper readily endorsed such a solution. We deemed it outrageous that doctors could abandon the treatment of members of the public at state-run hospitals for a series of absurd reasons such as their desire to be represented by MPATT, their demand for parity of treatment with doctors working in Tobago and even their negotiations for salary increases. It is only now, however, that the political nature of their "protest" has been plainly revealed with the UNC candidature of Dr Anirudh Mahabir in the recent Local Government Election. Head of the Ophthalmology Department of the San Fernando General Hospital, Dr Mahabir has been described by Minister Imbert as one of the major "ringleaders" featuring prominently in the strike action taken by doctors. The Minister disclosed that during the hospital crisis caused by the strike, Dr Mahabir was sending patients to his own private hospital, Surgi-Med Clinic, which eventually submitted a $557,000 bill to the Ministry for treating these patients. According to Mr Imbert, the necessity of transferring patients to private hospitals during the doctors' strike has cost the government and taxpayers a total of $2.3 million.

Newsday has discovered in one case, that of a pregnant woman suffering from septic peritonitis whose baby was stillborn, Surgi-Med Clinic refused the request to send her back to the San Fernando Hospital after the strike, and later submitted a bill to the government for $122,460. Our investigations have shown that this has been the pattern ever since the blossoming of private medical clinics during the UNC regime, with senior doctors spending minimum time at public institutions while earning huge incomes at the hospitals they own or in which they have an interest. Many, in fact, take advantage of the long waiting lists at state hospitals to encourage persons needing specialist treatment to go to their private clinics instead. Our investigations also reveal the kind of money Ministry of Health doctors receive from their work in private hospitals. For the month of April 2003, one eye specialist was paid $284,970; two urologists collected $90,000 each and one surgeon got over $70,000 from one private hospital alone. The control of senior doctors over the public health service is virtually complete by the influence they exercise over their juniors who depend on them for recommendations for promotions, for entry into medical school to undertake specialist courses, and for invitations to become partners in private hospitals. If the "sickness" in the country's public health service is to remedied, Minister Imbert must continue the struggle to break this vicious stranglehold. We wish him luck. Let the Cubans come.