To­bag­o­ni­ans who have to come to Trinidad for cer­tain types of med­ical at­ten­tion will now get a 100 per cent re­bate on their air­fare, To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Del­mon Bak­er said yes­ter­day. He was speak­ing at yes­ter­day's week­ly Gov­ern­ment press con­fer­ence.

Bak­er said the 100 per cent re­bate would ap­ply to pa­tients who came to Trinidad for or­tho­pe­dic care or for at­ten­tion to ear, nose and throat (ENT) prob­lems. He said the sys­tem had ini­tial­ly been for 75 per cent of air­fare but now a re­bate of 100 per cent on air­fare would ap­ply to pa­tients and any­one who ac­com­pa­nied them to Trinidad.

He said some pa­tients would no longer have to wait three months to come to Trinidad.?"With the re­bate sys­tem, they can now come to Trinidad and get care in a week,"?Bak­er added. He said a com­mit­tee would scru­ti­nise pa­tients' re­ports from their doc­tors and ap­ply to the so­cial ser­vices or Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ties (RHAs) for care for the pa­tients and pay­ment for their tick­ets if they have to come to T&T.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Min­is­ter Ja­mal Mo­hammed when was asked about al­leged moves to get phone records of a T&T Guardian re­porter as­sured the press was free in T&T. He said what­ev­er is­sues might be seen with the me­dia were not a ma­jor prob­lem but per­haps "a dif­fer­ence of opin­ion" some­times. "We may not al­ways agree on things but I?will fight to the death to en­sure your right to print or pub­lish what you do," he added.