Dr Beharry's mission to help doctors be better doctors

Dr Vishi Y Beharry, the 2021 president of the TT Medical Association (T&TMA), has always wanted to help and serve the people of TT.

Born and raised in Enterprise, he attended Couva Government Secondary School and went on to study medicine at UWI, St Augustine.

In 2008, he met his wife Maryam Mohammed in medical school and together they helped to revamp the TT Medical Students Association in 2010. From there, he made the connection with and eventually transitioned to the Medical Association.

He specialises in family and emergency medicine, and practices in Chaguanas and south Trinidad. He is president of The Rotary Club of Felicity Charlieville, vice president of SewaTT, and a former president of The Movement for the Encouragement of Dharmic Services.

“Essentially, I merge my social work with my work in the medical fraternity. I’m very much someone who is interested in doing a lot of social work and helping people on the ground level who have that need for support. A lot of the things I do and will be doing will have that as the foundation, whether it be helping doctors within the medical fraternity through the Medical Association or helping people in the community through Rotary or Sewa.”

Beharry, 36, was installed as president of the T&TMA on January 30 at the association’s virtual presidential inauguration and conferring of honours ceremony at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Cultural Co-operation in Chaguanas. His wife is the association's third vice president.

There, after announcing that TT will get around 120,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca covid19 vaccine by March, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh called on the association to work with the government in the upcoming covid19 vaccination distribution process.

Beharry told Sunday Newsday the T&TMA is still working out the details and logistics of TT’s covid19 vaccination drive. However, its members are willing and able to support the Health Ministry.

“When there comes a time when there is a lot more vaccines and we need to get them out to the general population, we can provide the support of going into the communities to the patients who can not go to the health centres. Just as we did the outreach after the 2018 floods, providing medical care to affected persons through simultaneous clinics in multiple areas, we’re going to use that model and partner with the ministry.”

In the meantime, he said T&TMA members will provide support by educating people about vaccines to combat vaccine hesitancy, and have continuing medical education (CME) lectures for doctors on how to identify, treat with, and report side effects of the vaccine.

Beharry stressed that the T&TMA is separate from the Medical Board and the Medical Professionals Association of TT (MPATT). He explained that the board was a regulatory body that issued licences to practise medicine, and the MPATT was a union, although he did not believe it was operational at this time.

T&TMA is a professional association which advocates on behalf of doctors, for patient rights, and for matters such as proper screening, standards, guidelines and the running of the public health sector. It is also a stakeholder representative which voices concerns about medical issues.

About eight years ago the organisation was accredited and licensed to provide CME by the American Academy of Continuing Medical Education, doing up to 189 CME lectures per year.

“Prior to two years ago, we have been the only group conducting CME lectures and we have been advocating for it to become mandatory. TT is the only country in the Caribbean that has a medical act that does not make it mandatory for doctors to have updated CME to renew their licences.

“Medicine is an ever-changing world with new research, evidence, and evidence-based medicine. It is important for doctors to update themselves so they are giving patients the best care available.”

He said he believes the process was at an advanced stage at the Ministry of Health and hoped the government would make it so.

The association also encourages doctors to treat patients in terms of evidence-based medicine using best practices and the most updated research, and arranges outreach clinics in rural communities.

Members mentor junior doctors to help mould them into better healthcare professionals. This is done by hosting training sessions to assist in managing their careers and lives, as well as through one-on-one interactions that provide support to those who need assistance balancing and developing their careers.

Beharry will be the president for the next year and he intends to guide the organisation along its current path of teaching, treating, mentoring and advocating.

“Years ago we developed a strategic plan to make the association more far-reaching, more visible, and more operationally efficient. My plan is to continue to work with the association in context with the strategic plan. That requires me to listen to all the committee leads and our membership to figure out the issues they are facing now, and then respond to that.”

Two issues that have been prominent are burnout by medical professionals due to covid19, and the decrease in blood donors. And this year the organisation’s advocacy will focus on mental health, NCDs, women’s health, and paediatrics.

He has established a committee to help deal with mental health and burnout with the hopes that it could provide support, avenues and strategies for medical professionals to deal with their stresses.

In addition, he said the country needs about 60,000 pints of blood annually but the blood bank usually gets about 20,000 and that was reduced to under 10,000 during the pandemic. The association will, therefore, support the Ministry of Health in getting 100 per cent voluntary blood donation by encouraging and educating people, and having voluntary blood drives.