House resumes with health and sugar

THE HOUSE of Representatives holds its first sitting for 2004 today at 1.30 pm, with health and the 2004 sugar crop being the only two new items on a parliamentary menu of mainly legislative leftovers. Health Minister John Rahael will be called on to say how many neonatal deaths occurred on a monthly basis at the Mount Hope Women’s Hospital (MHWH) from January 2002 to the present. Rahael will also be asked to give details of the financing arrangements “for the $5 million in medical equipment for the public health sector promised over a year ago,” when that equipment would be installed in the nation’s health facilities as well as financing arrangements for the purchase of new ambulances promised in the 2003/2004 Budget; and whether any advertisements were placed in the media for the purchase of these ambulances. All of these questions are being posed by former Health Minister, Caroni Central MP, Dr Hamza Rafeeq.

On Wednesday, Rahael said it is safe for women to have their babies at the MHWH. The minister indicated that the North-West Regional Health Authority has santised the hospital’s neonatal unit and implemented infection control measures. Rahael previously indicated that relocation of the MHWH was an option being considered by Government and he recently visited some possible sites at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) where the hospital could be relocated. A Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) report suggested that either the hospital be refurbished or relocated, but the latter only be done once a proper technical analysis is done. On Monday, Rahael received the first batch of new diagnostic equipment at the EWMSC and said more equipment will be arriving in Trinidad and Tobago on a monthly basis until April. The total cost of the new equipment is $56 million and was arranged through a letter of credit from Citibank and a letter of comfort from the Ministry of Finance.

The minister also indicated that seven to eight new  ambulances for the Emergency Health Services (EHS) are scheduled to arrive in TT by mid-January. Their arrival forms part of an agreement between the Government and United Nations Development Programme to supply 40 new ambulances to the EHS and was an initiative started by former Health Minister Colm Imbert. Rahael said arrangements are in place to ensure proper maintenance of both the diagnostic equipment and the ambulances. Naparima MP Nizam Baksh will ask Agriculture Minister Jarrette Narine who the Sugar Manufacturing Company Ltd has authorised to harvest and supply cane formerly owned by the now defunct Caroni (1975) Ltd. Problems have arisen recently between two canefarmers’ associations over the handling of the 2004 sugar crop but Prime Minister Patrick Manning has given the assurance that the crop is not in jeopardy and the local sugar industry has nothing to fear from a recent agreement signed by Government to import sugar from Guyana.