A MONSTROUS FAUX PAS

Either Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Patrick Manning, was right when he announced in his Budget Speech on October 7 that all medical services at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) would be free from January 1, 2005 or Minister of Health, John Rahael, was correct when he stated on Thursday that this would not be so. But both cannot be right. Was it possible that Manning may have made his statement without reference to Rahael, which should have been unlikely since such a major health policy decision would have warranted the input of the Health Minister, or was it that when costs and other factors were worked out it was decided that the approach was too costly.
The announcement of free medical services at the EWMSC from January 1, 2005 was a monstrous faux pas by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Manning. Many persons from middle, lower middle and lower income groups must have seen in it the opportunity to save a great deal on medical bills, a critical factor for many middle aged and senior citizens. It should be noted, however, that medical services are free to all children, up to the age of 16 years, at the paediatric ward of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, without the humbug of a referral policy. Meanwhile, the number of persons, above the age of 16, that will be in a position to access free medical care at the Medical Sciences Complex will increase, even with the scaled down position. Minister Rahael has declared that all patients of public health institutions, who are referred (from these facilities) to the EWMSC for specialised services, will receive them at no cost. As limited as this may be, it is an improvement on the procedure existing today under which adult patients, regardless of residence, receive free treatment only if they are referred by the Arima Health Facility or the Chaguanas Health Facility.

This ends a clearly exclusive preferential system under which patients at other health facilities did not qualify for free medical services at the EWMSC despite their economic circumstance and whether or not they were citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and tacit taxpayers. And while the Ministry of Health may have had a rationale for their former policy decision, it was nonetheless discriminatory and unfair. Individuals who are not covered by contracts, companies in the corporate and energy sector which have entered into with the North Central Regional Health Authority for the provision of medical services for their employees, or public servants with private health insurance, at present have to pay an access fee of $165 plus $350 a day. And while the fees are subsidised by the State and much lower that those which obtain in the United States of America, Canada and Venezuela, for example, they are nonetheless outside of the financial reach of the majority of Trinidadians and Tobagonians. An additional plus which will be offered at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, under the expanded policy, will be the availability of additional beds at its Intensive Care Unit to accommodate patients who may be sent from other health institutions. Hopefully, however, this time around citizens’ hopes have not been raised again unduly.