B.Yisrael: Fix Tobago's healthcare for good

Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Minority Councillor Dr Faith B.Yisrael is calling on the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development and by extension the assembly to fix the healthcare system on the island “once and for all.”

Addressing Tuesday’s Minority Council media briefing in Scarborough, BYisrael pointed out that a number of the imaging tools at the Scarborough General Hospital are non-functional.

“We’re talking about X-ray machines, we’re talking about MRI machines, we’re talking about CT scans, we’re talking about ultrasound machines. If you know anything about medicine, you would know that these are basic diagnostic tools to determine what is wrong with you to then decide your course of action.

“If these basic diagnostic tools are not working, then we do not know how to treat with your illness. Those things need to be fixed,” she said.

She saidt at present the hospital also lacks chemicals needed to do tests, as several of the hospital’s service providers are owed.

“The reagents are not available because the suppliers have simply refused to hand over the product because they are been owed millions of dollars. The last figure that I heard from one of the suppliers and that’s just one is that that supplier is owed over $10 million for their reagents. Therefore, they are not willing, they are not able to provide additional resources to the Tobago Regional Health Authority until they get their money. That is a reasonable expectation,” she said.

She said “the management system seems to be completely failed,” as she recalled that it was only on March 20 that several senior managers were sent on administrative leave.

“We were told that it is because an audit (of the payroll) is being done. We have not heard anything about that audit, we have not heard anything about whether those individuals have returned to work, we have heard nothing – which means that the entire structure of the organisation, which was created in a particular way for it to function properly, is not functioning,” BYisrael said.

She called on the secretary of Health, Wellness and Family Development and the Chief Secretary to fix these issues.

“There is no way under the sun could we be providing adequate care to the people of Tobago. Given that that division – the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development, where the TRHA (Tobago Regional Health Authority) gets its funding from – is one of the most resourced divisions in the THA, Tobagonians expect better."

Having spent "over $40 billion over the last 16, 17, 18 years," she said, "what we are getting now for good governance is not what we expect, and Tobagonians expect better. We expect the secretary with responsibility for Health, Wellness and Family Development and we expect the Chief Secretary to also step up and figure out how to fix this. That is why you guys are placed there, that is why you guys are have been appointed, that is why you were elected. Step up, fix these issues, because Tobago deserves better than this.”

Newsday contacted the division’s communications unit and was told to send a formal e-mail. An e-mail was sent, to which a response came saying it had been forwarded to the secretary and an official response would follow. Up to press time, no response had been received.