PM off to Cuba for check-up

Prime Minister Patrick Manning leaves today for Havana, Cuba for a “routine medical analysis.” A release from the Prime Minister’s office, which announced Manning’s plans, also stated that he would return to Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday. Manning had valve replacement surgery in Cuba in April 1998, when he was Opposition Leader. The PM suffered from rheumatic fever as a child and the condition damages the valves in the heart. Sources said because the Prime Minister had the original surgery done in Cuba and because he had excellent service and excellent results, he chose to go back to Cuba for any subsequent checks on his heart. Noting that Manning has artificial valves, the source stated, “If there is a problem and it needs correction, they would be in the best position to know what to do, having done the original work.”

Minister of Culture and Gender Affairs Joan Yuille-Williams will act as Prime Minister while Manning is away. Government sources also pointed out that Cuba’s medical facilities and expertise are considered to be among the best in the world. They added that in addition to this, the Cuban government would definitely ensure that Manning gets the very best that that country has to offer. “It would not just be a question of the doctors, but the (Cuban) government will also insist on the best for the Prime Minister,” they stated. In 1998, Manning’s team of doctors included the professor and chief of the Department of Surgery, Dr Julio Tain Blazquez. When Manning returned to Trinidad in May 1998, he said he was so impressed with Cuba’s health service he was going to recommend to the then UNC government that this country sign an agreement with Cuba to cooperate in the field of medicine.

It is expected that Manning will have a private audience with Cuban president, Fidel Castro, though official sources would not confirm this. There is already a government-to-government agreement between Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba for health care. When the Trinidad and Tobago Government decided to take decisive action to address the critical shortage of medical personnel, it turned to Cuba for help, whose ratio of doctors to the population is among the highest in world. In addition to providing this country with doctors and nurses, there are currently 2,000 Cuban doctors working in Venezuela under the same type of government-to-government arrangement. Former president Arthur NR Robinson and former prime minister Basdeo Panday have also had heart surgery.