PM not prejudicing Couva hospital talks

GOVERNMENT will not compromise talks on the future of the Couva Children’s and Adult Hospital to satisfy the Opposition’s political agenda, said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

He told MPs that negotiations are underway between Government, the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Interhealth Canada about a public-private partnership that involves the hospital.

After Naparima MP Rodney Charles claimed Government had no position going into the talks, Rowley threw the Opposition into an uproar with his response.

“What makes you think you have a position?” he quipped.

After Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George restored order, Rowley said the Opposition is acting,”under the misconception that we have no position and no policy.”

Reiterating that negotiations are ongoing, Rowley declared, “I will not outline the Government’s position in the middle of those negotiations to prejudice those negotiations.”

He said issues of ownership and operations are part of the discussions and it is premature at this stage for anyone to say whether the services at the hospital would be free or not. At a post-Cabinet news conference on April 26, Rowley said the Couva hospital will now be a teaching hospital, owned by Government and run by UWI, and InterHealth will provide healthcare services in a model that TT is not accustomed to. He added this arrangement could also help Government to settle a $200 million debt it owes UWI.

Later in the sitting, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said a TT-Spain organ-transplant initiative has cost $150,000 from 2011 to this year, and has resulted in 41 kidney transplants and two cornea transplants being done. The organs used came from deceased donors, Deyalsingh added.