TRHA money woes stunt growth of health sector

Money problems are stunting the growth and operations of the health sector in Tobago.

Ingrid Melville, Deputy Chairman of the Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA), in the Chairman’s report at the TRHA/Tobago House of Assembly Public Accountability consultation 2016-2018 on Tuesday night at the Calder Hall Multipurpose Facility, said financial constraints have been a major challenge for the current TRHA Board which has resulted in major equipment failure at the Scarborough General Hospital because of lack of maintenance.

“During the tenure of this board, a new General Manager, Operations, started work. We have been impacted by core preventive maintenance resulting in the failure of major equipment. This resulted in high cost to return various pieces of equipment, including air condition units and the fire water pump at the hospital, to name a few, to functionality,” Melville said.

She said the TRHA was, however, able to refurbished the Accident and Emergency waiting area, installed a new water dialysis unit at the Scarborough Health Centre and buy 50 new hospital beds.

In 2017, of the $354 million allocated to the TRHA, and subsequently reduced to $342 million, $339 million was received by the Authority. For fiscal 2018, the parliamentary allocation was $300 million, and Melville said she hoped for a more “facilitative allocation” for the two- year tenure of the new TRHA board.

“…the impact of the financial situation of the health services (run) by the TRHA cannot be underestimated. We have a new hospital facility and it can be perceived that capital cost in secondary care would be reduced but medical equipment has a lifespan to be considered,” she said.

Melville said the TRHA has implemented steps to reduce costs generated of organisational deficiencies and to enhance service delivery while embarking on an aggressive strategy to promote financial stability.

She said this includes using the cafeteria to establish a profit centre, commercialising laundry services and implementing a fee for non-national clients to pay for services outside of emergency care.

Melville also spoke about promoting health tourism - to transform the tourism sector in Tobago from a holiday destination to a must-have state of the art health care experience.

In presenting the financial report, Angell Second-Ali, General Manager, Corporate Services, said the TRHA expenditure for 2017 include $386 million for employees’ cost, $88 million for operating expenses, and $25 million for administrative expenses.

For this year, up to April, the TRHA received $230 million with total cash expenditure to date being $224 million.

Second-Ali said the TRHA’s Board is focussing on eliminating wasteful spending, increasing efficiencies and will continue to lobby for an increased allocation, to prevent a deficit at the end of 2018.