Govt, UWI partner on Couva hospital

PRIME Minister Dr Rowley said government is negotiating with UWI to run Couva Hospital as partners and sell services provided to regional entities. Speaking at the opening of the Arima General Hospital on Tuesday, he said the plan was in the works before the covid19 crisis stalled talks. He said once the pandemic stresses are over, the plan would be implemented.

“We owed the UWI $200 million and we made a deal to invite them in by negotiation to run this new hospital in partnership with the government to provide better healthcare, but outside of the normal healthcare system and to target the regional market for cutting edge health care.

“That will allow the country to have within our borders a hospital which locals will accept and access, and the government will pay for locals in there but the University can sell those services to others when they are approached with a demand,” Rowley said. He said even though the Couva hospital was opened in 2015 in time for elections, the contractor handed it over to the government in July 2016.

He said there are ten hospitals in TT delivering healthcare. He said the new hospital in Pt Fortin would be opened by the end of July, while construction is going on in Sangre Grande and Roxborough in Tobago, and the Diego Martin Health Facility is close to completion.

Some people, he added, have uninformed negative views of the healthcare system and called on them to temper their criticism with reason. He said had the healthcare system been as bad as people said, TT would have been decimated by covid19.

“The healthcare system has been one of our main priorities for the longest while, after education, everything else is secondary. Since we took charge of these islands, we have made those two priorities permanently, even though national security has pushed itself up to the top, unwelcome.”

He said healthcare is one of the most contentious items in the developed world, but it is mostly free here, and people should appreciate what they have. He said most of the healthcare delivered is paid for by the State.