Rowley: Govt in talks on Couva Hospital

PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley says government has been in discussions on the Couva Hospital, but depending on the response for requests for proposals, the hospital may be placed in the regular healthcare system. He was speaking on Monday during a town meeting with the TT Diaspora at the TT High Commission in London.

He said the Government was looking to enter the area of health tourism and training, but this was in its incipient stage. On the Couva Children’s Hospital he reported government had just concluded some discussions. “I have given the Parliament the assurance that if by the end of this month we have not got a response to our requests for proposals to participate in the new Couva Hospital in a way that would have allowed it to be a different model to the existing health care delivery system, we will simply put that hospital into the healthcare system and it would just be another hospital – which is something that we did not want.

“I can tell you we are a long way from there and I am in a position to tell you not in the not-too-distant future about what progress we have made in creating a new model in addition to what we had, in support of what we had.”

He said the new model would feature new training, and cutting-edge technology not only for local citizens but for those outside who might want to access that service in this country for a fee.

Rowley said this was one area he was sure the country would not get the same type of response from nationals abroad as was experienced with the police (for commissioner of police and deputy commissioner of police) and for the tourism industry. He said in terms of healthcare delivery Trinidadians in the diaspora had distinguished themselves.

The hospital was completed in March 2015 for US$1.3 billion as a flagship project of the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration and was commissioned in August 2015. but has remained unopened.

Opposition members have repeatedly made calls for the hospital to be opened, while Government has reported that it has been searching for a suitable operator for the children’s and adult hospital.