PM's medical check precedes 75th birthday next month

THE Prime Minister might stride into a room or onto a political platform with all the poise and vigour of a man half his age, but the fact of his turning 75 next month means Dr Rowley is no spring chicken. Consider that if he were to win next year's general elections, by the end of his third term in office he would be 81. That's the age at which US President Joe Biden was deemed too old to continue in office by his own Democratic Party before he passed the baton to his vice president, Kamala Harris, to run in the November presidential election.

On September 1, a brief statement from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said Rowley would leave that day for the US, "where he will undergo medical tests."

Rowley's naming Energy Minister Stuart Young acting prime minister and then slipping off to the US for his annual medical check-up comes against the backdrop of several past health issues for the PM.

Firstly, he caught the covid19 virus on at least four occasions between April 2021 and February 2023. Secondly, he has admitted to having an enlarged prostate gland, common in most ageing men, for which he was monitored in California, US.

Thirdly, in 2021 he complained of "discomfort," after which he went to Westshore Medical Centre out of an abundance of caution and had an angiogram and an angioplasty. An angiogram is a scan of the heart. An angioplasty entails inserting a tiny balloon to open up a narrowed or blocked artery, often also installing a stent – a tiny wire mesh tube – to increase blood flow.

On September 3, Newsday sought details of Rowley's visit to the US.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh referred Newsday to the OPM.

Inquiries made of Communications Minister Symon de Nobriga got no reply up to publication time, as did inquiries of Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne.