Doctors upset over vacant acting posts

THE MEDICAL Professionals Association of TT yesterday said no attempt has been made to regularise the positions of doctors holding acting posts or advertise vacancies. Instead, MPATT said, the Health Ministry and Regional Health Authorities are using a “subversive process of hiring UN doctors to occupy posts.”

Fifty-six UN doctors will be arriving in TT in September as part of the foreign contingent recruited by the Ministry to work in the Public Service. They will be coming under the UN Volunteer Programme which is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Commenting on their arrival, Health Minister Colm Imbert was quoted last week as saying one of the reasons the Ministry is filling all vacancies and creating specialised surgical units is because of the “totally unacceptable” number of outstanding elective surgeries. However, MPATT said the vacancies which the Minister spoke of were not advertised internally or externally. “If such vacancies do indeed exist, then these posts need to be advertised so that all suitable applicants have the opportunity to apply,” said Vice-President of MPATT, Dr Lakhan Roop.

At present there are medical officers holding acting positions within the Ministry and RHAs. “It would be sensible for the service to regularise these acting positions, and only then would an accurate assessment of these vacancies be made.” Roop said the Health Ministry and RHAs are demonstrating that they do not intend to engage in any transparent policy of advertising and hiring of employees. “The much ballyhooed concept for transparency seems to have gone out the window.” Approximately 50-60 percent of all local medical graduates in the past ten years are working in the UK and US. However, Roop said no attempt has been made to recruit them for the local health system. “This begs the question, is it that taxpayers’ money will continue to be used in training our doctors and not providing an appropriate environment to encourage them to stay or return if they have already left?”