Free health care magnet

Government’s offer of free health care at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) to all citizens referred to it from all public health institutions has seen a tripling of the number of persons hoping to access service at the complex’s adult Priority Care Facility (PCF). And with Clinical Director of the adult PCF, Dr Helmer Hilwig, indicating that he expected a quadrupling of persons by the end of the week meant that the free offer had not only proven to be a magnet but somehow had been misunderstood. Between Saturday and 1 pm on Monday 152 persons had been seen by medical staff, but only nine had been categorised as emergency cases.

Minister of Health John Rahael pointed out to media representatives on Monday afternoon that the adult PCF was for accident and emergency cases and not people well enough to walk off the streets. Rahael added that “these people also spend more time waiting for the treatment than the emergency cases” and insisted that the patients would be screened and redirected to where they should have gone initially. The EWMSC, the Health Minister declared, would be maintained as a referral facility for all public health patients. Clearly, the majority of the several persons who had turned up had not been referred, but perhaps had preferred to have been guided by the Budget speech announcement by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Patrick Manning, that all would have been able to access free health care at the EWMSC from January 1.

Admittedly, the Minister of Health had later qualified this and emphasisied that only persons referred from public health institutions would be granted this facility. In addition, newspaper advertisements had provided a follow through of Minister Rahael’s qualifying of the Budget speech position on free health care at the EWMSC. The relatively large numbers of those seeking patient care, however, suggested that as far as they were concerned they were entitled to it free of charge and had turned up for it. Rahael may have to call a special news conference for the purpose of further seeking to correct the still lingering impression, or use the next post-Cabinet news conference, which has a major audience, as a vehicle to achieve this.

Meanwhile, does the point made in Ministry of Health advertisements that Government was making the facilities at the EWMSC available to all citizens utilising the public health care system in Trinidad and Tobago, mean that access to this free health care would be limited to citizens and/or residents. We make the point because citizens of Commonwealth Caribbean and other countries, who may merely be visiting, are afforded free medical attention at public hospitals and health centres, a facility not extended to Trinidadians and Tobagonians by similar institutions in other countries. At present, any citizen of a Commonwealth Caribbean country, who neither pays taxes nor resides here, can come into Trinidad and Tobago specifically for the purpose of obtaining free medical care at public health institutions. And while we appreciate the need for closer cooperation, any facility offered that is funded by taxpayers should be on the basis of reciprocity.