PM: TT dodged 2018 earthquake bullet

THE Prime Minister yesterday sounded a serious note on the need for healthcare to be paid for, as he urged citizens not to take the State’s generous provisions for granted.

Dr Rowley addressed the sod-turning ceremony for the new central block at Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH.)

He said despite fiscal challenges, funding had to be found for the new block, as the country had been a spared any devastation of the old block during the 6.9 magnitude earthquake of August 21, 2018.

“We in Trinidad and Tobago must be the only place in recent times that experienced a magnitude 6.9 earthquake and had no casualties. We dodged a bullet.”

Citing the adage that God is a Trini, he nonetheless added, “We have been blessed, but have been careless.”

Rowley said when he had become PM, he had seen a report on the state of the old block, and simply could not believe that nothing had been done about the tenuous structure.

Reflecting on the earthquake, he said, “We got away with that, but must not do (that is, risk) it again.”

He feared his luck might run out as a vulcanologist, as he recalled seeing in Montserrat children playing in a schoolyard when the volcano erupted, sending a cloud towards the school, but stopping just yards away.

Rowley said the Government cannot afford to build the new block, but alternatively cannot afford to neglect the building. It approached the Chinese for find an arrangement for a $1.1 billion liability to fund construction.

He said that like a school, a hospital ought to be built so as to be beyond any chance of being endangered by an earthquake.

“This is a place of refuge,” he said. “We are doing what we have to do, giving health the priority it deserves.”

Rowley recalled that the Point Fortin and Arima hospitals are due to open early next year, while he had recently turned the sod for hospitals at Roxborough and Sangre Grande. With the PoSGH, all these hospitals will ensure coverage for TT’s whole population he said.

Rowley said people would be surprised to know the cost of running hospitals, including security and janitorial serves. Pledging his commitment to funding the hospitals, he said this is best done by a new Revenue Authority, which he said will recoup the alleged 40 per cent of owed taxes which currently elude collection. He vowed to eliminate waste and theft of public monies.

“People, we’ve got to get serious.”

Recalling that during his childhood every father would tell his son to have ambition, Rowley said he has not heard that much recently, in an age when ambition is often wrongly equated with greed. “Ambition means you want to be the best you can be, and you take personal responsibility.”

The PM knocked those who take free medical care for granted, such as “those idiots who drink and drive,” who are then treated in hospital at a cost of $2 million each. Saying prevention is better than cure, Rowley lamented those people whose lifestyle choices incur non-communicable diseases which they then demand the government treats.

Rowley related that when someone is rescued from a cliff or a forest in California such as by a helicopter, often they must ultimately pay for that service.

“But in TT we think it is free – (but) other taxpayers have to pay for it. Let’s be grateful.”

Earlier Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh recounted that the new block of 540 beds will cost $1.2 billion. Saying the 13-storey block will be built over three years, he presumed a 2020 electoral victory to say, “In 2022 you will be welcoming back Dr Keith Rowley to reveal the plaque.”

Afterwards Deyalsingh told reporters, that in the meantime as an alternative some 85 clinical beds are being provided at an old Costaat building and 65 surgical beds at St James, after a $50 million refit approved by Cabinet.

While Rowley had recovered from the flu that had kept him from functions last week, Deyalsingh coughed loudly at intervals as he spoke to reporters. Newsday asked him how so, if he had taken the H1N1 vaccine.

Deyalsingh replied he had indeed taken that vaccine, but his cough was caused by the common flu virus.

Also at the event were Shanghai Construction Group MD Michael Zhang and Chinese Ambassador Song Yumin. Welcome remarks were given by NWRHA chairman Lisa Agard.