No problem with the organ donor programme

At last week’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Rahael announced the establishment of a special tissue transplant unit to guide the operations of Trinidad and Tobago’s NODP.

The minister quoted figures to show that over the years, very few citizens had undergone kidney transplants and that the demand for organs exceeded the supply.

Rahael told Newsday yesterday that this did not mean there were problems with the NODP.

He said the information he referred to about the demand for and supply of organs in TT was related to the number of persons in the country who currently seek dialysis treatment.

He said now that Cabinet has approved the establishment of the new tissue transplant unit (which will be based at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex — EWMSC) he expects the NODP will move into high gear.

Rahael indicated that once all the elements are in place, transplant surgeries should begin within the next two months at the EWMSC.

Acting Medical Professional Association of TT (MPATT) president Dr Lakhan Roop said the establishment of the tissue transplant unit was a good thing but there was tremendous work to do to put in the necessary infrastructure to support its work.

Roop noted that the minister previously indicated that transplant surgeries would begin this month.

While tissue transplants are performed in TT, the legislative framework was only recently established to undertake them when Government succeeded in obtaining parliamentary approval for regulations attached to the Human Tissue Transplant Act 2000 in January.

The approval of the regulations had been stalled under the former UNC administration. Rahael has also said tenders have gone out for the construction of two dialysis centres (one in north Trinidad and the other in south Trinidad).

Asked whether it was realistic to expect that all health sector workers will be reporting to one employer before year’s end, Rahael remained optimistic that this could be achieved within this time frame.

Roop however did not believe that this goal could be achieved before year’s end because there were many problems which needed to be solved and the time period was too short.

One of those problems is opposition from the Public Services Association (PSA) president Jennifer Baptiste-Primus.

She has alleged that Health Ministry workers would lose all their current benefits if they transfer to the RHAs.

Rahael has repeatedly said the dual system of reporting within the health sector was one of the main reasons why the RHAs have not been as effective as they should be.

On March 5, 2004, Govern-ment passed the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) Amendment Bill 2004 (to facilitate the transfer of health workers from the public service to the RHAs) in the House of Representatives.

The Opposition and the doctors claimed the bill was unconstitutional since it imposed the PSA as the majority union within the RHAs.

Government subsequently agreed with this position. The Bill was never brought to the Senate and never became law.