Health Minister: Go to hospital if you are sick

While stay-at-home orders are still in effect, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh is urging people with chronic illnesses to come out and seek treatment.

Despite the cancellation of some elective surgeries to better accommodate covid19 testing, there were still adequate resources to treat people with hypertension, diabetes and other chronic illnesses, Deyalsingh said on Tuesday during the virtual media conference at the Ministry of Health.

He said in Tobago, the Scarborough hospital was active and performing dialysis services, while in Trinidad chemotherapy was still available at the St James hospital. He implored the public to use these resources if they felt unwell.

He also told expectant mothers that they would be treated if they went into labour.

"We don't want a backlash out of covid19, that people feel the hospitals are not working," he said. "By and large we continue to encourage our population to use the public health system. Don't stay at home and let chronic illness conditions worsen. We made sure that our normal service to clients continues unabated for as long as possible."

Deyalsingh said the number of patients at St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital was reduced to 750 from 1,000 under the national policy on the decentralisation of mental health,
earlier this year, before the outbreak of the coronavirus.