Rural health centres open 24/7

THE 2019 budget allocation for the Ministry of Health did not vary much from last year’s with a slight decrease from $6.02 billion to $5.695 billion.

In yesterday’s budget presentation, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said the Republic of Austria would be finding the construction of both the Pt Fortin Hospital and the Sangre Grande hospitals at the cost of $1 billion and $850 million respectively.

The Arima Hospital was scheduled to be completed in July 2019 at the cost of $1.2 billion, and the Port of Spain General Hospital’s Central Bock would be redeveloped at the cost of $1.7 billion.

He also announced that the Couva Medical and Multi-Training Facility would be jointly-owned by the government and the University of the West Indies (UWI). Services at the facility would not be free, so a fee-paying structure was being established in addition to a system to offset the cost of low-income patients.

“The board of directors is now seeking an operator for this state-of-the-art facility which will be the new model of healthcare and will consolidate our entry into the area of health and health tourism... The University of the West Indies will now have access to another teaching and training hospital catering for an additional 300 students.”

In addition, Imbert said that from January 1, 2019, health centres at Grand Riviere, Blanchisseuse, and Cedros would remain open for 24 hours a day. “The government is proposing to have those health centres located in remote areas opened on a 24 hour/7 days basis in an effort to deal with community members who have to traverse long distances to a public health facility in an emergency situation.”