Three interesting health-related events took place last week. Much to the dismay of certain radio talk show hosts, the Attorney General absolved the 10 San Fernando Hospital doctors and nurses from blame in the death of Crystal Boodoo-Ramsoomair. It is quite clear now that there are two types of live talk radio shows in the country. They divide along political and racial lines which often converge: PNM Afro-centric and UNC Indo-centric. It is unbearable listening to the announcers of whichever sect and even worse to the callers, who now openly express their racial dislikes and prejudices and something needs to be done and done rapidly before the situation deteriorates. There are far too many decent Trinis of whatever race or of mixed descent who do not share these twisted views. Unfortunately, they do not call in and the impression is being given that we have a serious racial problem. Politics and race is a deadly mix and if talk show hosts are not mature and experienced enough to control their show and allow any deadbeat retiree at home to call in and demonstrate his or her shallow ideas, they should not be allowed to handle talk shows.
Last Friday morning, from 6 to 9 am, it was clear. If you supported UNC, you agreed with the AG. If you supported the PNM, you vex. People are far too concerned with politicians and I include the press in this. Who wants to hear what Mr Panday thinks of the Prime Minister on TV? Who wants to be continually reminded of Mr Manning's machinations within the PNM in the papers? The main thing to come out of the AG's report on Mrs Boodoo-Ramsoomair's death is the poor administration of health services at the San Fernando Hospital and, consequently, the appalling conditions under which doctors, nurses and other health personnel function at our hospitals: doctors scheduled for emergency duty who also have to run outpatient clinics; shortage of nurses; shortage of blood pressure monitors; shortages of oxygen and of resuscitation equipment; problems with lab tests and the blood bank. No one should be surprised at this. The Gafoor Report in 2007 came to the identical conclusion and so did the Commission of Enquiry into the 14 egg nog deaths at the St Ann's Hospital in 1992. In fact at that time a new disease was invented in T&T: "systemitis" or inflammation of the "system," as if the "system," by itself, is somehow to blame.
The real culprit in this is us, in our inability to correct what we know is wrong. Until we come to terms with our incompetence in the area of administration and look to people who can do something about the chronic problems of health and not talk about it, or until the lawyers get more involved, citizens will continue to die unnecessarily. Second the Prime Minister continued to talk blindly about the "Children's Hospital" she wants to build in Central. Why? We have a perfectly good 200-bed Children's Hospital at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, about 20 minutes away from central. The hospitalisation rate annually is about 80 to 90 per cent so it is not overcrowded. One children's ward has already been taken away from the paediatricians and given to adult medicine and part of the Paediatric Outpatient Clinic is about to be handed over to the Children's Life Fund Administration Unit. We do not have enough doctors and nurses and technicians and medical equipment in the country to man the hospitals we already have, and here we are talking about building more? Once again we are not seeing any vision, any plan, for the country but simply a series of what appear to be isolated politically motivated announcements. They sound good (don't they?) but have no contact with our reality.
Thirdly, the ever present Minister of the People and Social Development is set to build something called a National Development Centre for Persons with Disabilities, in Chaguanas. The centre is supposed to include a "wing" dedicated as a "Cerebral Palsy Centre," and four more such "centres" are proposed to be built in the future. The general idea is an excellent one. The major chronic problem with children in T&T is disability but I am not sure this is going to solve their problem. Questions abound and my information is that they are not being addressed. Is this centre for adults or children? You can't have one for both. The problems are different. What is this "cerebral palsy wing" business? CP is only one of the many disabilities that our children suffer from. We already have a perfectly good treatment centre for children with CP at the Princess Elizabeth Centre on Ariapita Avenue in Port-of-Spain which needs to be upgraded with more physical and occupational therapists, surgeons, nurses etc. What about children with learning disabilities? ADHD? Autism? The need is for a comprehensive diagnostic and resource centre for all disabilities. Who is going to staff that sort of place, far less four more? Looks like we need another committee to check out the situation.