Princess Elizabeth Centre needs a Santa

It seems astonishing that the Princess Elizabeth Centre is still fighting to keep its operating theatre going.

The centre provides surgery and specialised care that targets children living with disabilities in TT and the wider Caribbean.

It functions as the medical arm of the Princess Elizabeth Home established as a gift from Princess Elizabeth, and established in law in 1953, the year of her coronation as Queen Elizabeth.

The current medical facility opened for service in 1988, and relocated the operating theatre to the upper floor after floods damaged an earlier incarnation of the specialty hospital. The centre is built on land that has become flood-prone and suffered annual flooding since 2003, with major events in 2003 and 2011.

A new building is still incomplete, and the current site of the operating theatre has problems with an ageing roof, bringing water problems from another direction.

Despite these setbacks, the centre averages 200 surgical procedures a year, led by chief surgeon Dr David Toby, and sees 1,500 paediatric patients in its clinics. These expensive surgeries normally cost between $150,000 and $200,000, but most are subsidised to a significant degree.

A new operating theatre is to be established in the new orthopaedic wing, built sensibly well above potential floodwater levels, but the structure remains incomplete. The hunt continues for the additional $1 million needed to complete and outfit the building.

There has been help. In recent years, despite the death of the indefatigable champion George Daniel, head of the local chapter of Disabled Peoples' International, there has been slowly growing compassion for and consideration of members of the population with a range of disabilities.

Angostura funded a rebuild and refit of the children's play park, with an emphasis on specialised equipment for children with physical disabilities.

The National Lotteries Control Board has pitched in to retile and restore the therapeutic pool.

The Children's Ark leads a robust campaign for the centre, partnering with other NGOs, and supporters and medical professionals pitch in to allow it to function on its minimal budget.

In July 2018, the Health Ministry acknowledged to Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee the failure since 2017 to move the project forward. A year after the project was approved, the permanent secretary told the PAAC the ministry had not paid the project mobilisation fee yet.

Clearly there needs to be more fire under the pot in the public and corporate sector to acknowledge the importance of the work being done at the centre and the need to support its completion with more tangible vigour.

When the centre reopens on January 4, its eternally optimistic CEO Jan Sirjusingh will continue to hope for the gift of compassion and generosity needed to complete the work that will position the centre to be of even greater service in the third decade of a new century.