Gopeesingh calls for ‘confidential’ probe into covid deaths

FORMER UNC MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh is calling for a confidential inquiry into the 737 covid19 deaths in Trinidad and Tobago to date. Gopeesingh said this should form part of the commission of inquiry (CoI) that Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is calling for.

At a UNC virtual news conference on Sunday, Gopeesingh said, "One death is too much. As a clinician for over 45 years, I cannot contemplate even experiencing one death in our clinical/medical practice." He described such an experience as "painful, traumatic and unforgettable."

After experiencing the covid19 pandemic for the last 16 months, Gopeesingh said "This nation has no information nor answers, nor data nor analyses of the situation surrounding these deaths."

He said any country which considers itself to be a developed nation prides itself on the ability to hold confidential inquiries into questionable deaths.

"The CoI will ensure that the population gets the answers to these crucial questions with a view to determining the deaths of now 737 were in fact due to criminal negligence. The time has come for the Government to account to the people through this CoI."

Gopeesingh said he was not making this charge against any frontline health care professional worker but against the Government, the boards and management of the country's regional health authorities. As a former RHA chairman between 1997 to 2000, Gopeesingh claimed boards and managers at the RHAs were incompetent.

"I recommend that they all be dismissed."

After saying most people over 40 in TT have non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension or a combination of several NCDs, Gopeesingh asked, "Do you categorise them to the covid19 cemetery and graveyard and crematorium?

"For these 737 patients who died to be so classified is unconscionable, it is callous, it is disrespectful, it is unacceptable and completely unacceptable."

Gopeesingh claimed the families of patients in hospitals in the parallel health system, who are designated for critical care, do not receive information about their relatives unless they die.

In these situations, Gopeesingh said families are forced to search funeral homes and hospitals to find and identify their deceased relatives.

"These are desperate, grieving and hurting families."

Reiterating the UNC's condemnation of the Ministry of Health’s invitation earlier this month to people to walk in for covid19 vaccines, and which ended in chaos, Gopeesingh wondered if this was connected to the 19 deaths reported on Saturday.

While the Prime Minister apologised on June 12 for problems experienced by senior citizens for what they experienced, Gopeesingh asked how that helped the 737 people who have died.

"Does your apology bring them back to life?”

He reiterated the UNC's claim that Government is suppressing covid19 information, the party’s call for Rowley and Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh to resign, and for a new general election.

He asked whether "Government's deliberate, inadequate covid19 testing from March 2020 was aimed at hiding the real incidence of infection rates to gain a political advantage in 2020 general election."

Efforts to contact Rowley and Deyalsingh for comment were unsuccessful.