Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, holding added responsibility in Parliament yesterday as acting House of Representatives leader, sat through it all as UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar blazed Government on healthcare.
“They have the deaths of our innocent newborn babies on their hands! ... they simply don’t care! This Government has failed citizens time and time again in health and every other sector ... as they’ve failed as a Government on the whole!” Persad-Bissessar declared in debate of UNC’s motion on health.
Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, busy yesterday trying to save regional cricket, wasn’t present in Parliament. But Rowley’s recent comments have distanced him from the latest threat to his Government’s image—rising death toll of babies at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
As necessary. In an election year, the issue involves the deepest of emotions in another frontline ministry concerning life and death matters like National Security (where there’s been enough failure that National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds on Tuesday admitted his dissatisfaction with the crime situation).
With the crisis stamping a bullseye on the back of any health matter—and cannon fodder for the Opposition and legal associates—it’s ahead how PNM’s image emerges.
Among questions on the issue—including nurse-to-baby ratio and space allocation standards, the bacterial infection of the cluster case signals a collapse of systems somewhere, carelessness and complacency. Deyalsingh’s sought to distance Government from the matter via comments: he’s taking a political hands-off approach to its probe and he wasn’t inserting himself in the process.
But coping mechanisms produced sideline skirmishes with the Opposition on the Couva Children’s Hospital’s NICU, igniting calls for Deyalsingh to answer on another issue—the whereabouts of Couva’s NICU equipment.
The depth of the crisis, including an attempt to rebut on the Couva NICU, was reflected in bungled ministry damage control: Thursday’s ill-considered media tour of the PoSGH NICU. It inserted Deyalsingh’s ministry into the process facilitating a tour of an area where deaths occurred while PAHO’s probe of the deaths was ongoing.
It’s yet another probe—National Security matters are pending, including SSA’s, Point Fortin Highway enquiry, Secondary Roads Rehabilitation Company audit, and TSTT’s cybersecurity breach probes. The independent report on TSTT is still awaited by the line ministry, it’s confirmed. The June deadline for TSTT’s in-house probe looms.
Whether the health calamity’s discussed at today’s PNM General Council, the PNM’s finalising preparations for party polls and the June 2 Family Day.
Also in organisational mode, UNC tomorrow marks its 35th anniversary, where the agenda for what’s ahead—towards its crucial general election test—is expected. Helmed by Persad-Bissessar for 14 years, new modus operandi is expected for GE-bound, when the sharpest material and candidates are demanded.
Its accountability push has been an aggressive constant in Government’s terms, but PNM’s failures cannot be counted upon to bolster its image. UNC’s own challenges include its past, necessary support expansion as some depart and leadership challenges.
In the latest involving MPs Rodney Charles and the four others, Persad-Bissessar’s rule last week emerged victorious in the debate on the special majority Constitutional (Amendment) Bill. While MP Rushton Paray absented himself, the others toed the party line. Yesterday, it was also one UNC: Charles demanding answers from Government, Persad-Bissessar declaring them failures.
The group, a target of Monday’s blistering attack by young UNC MPs, may hardly attend tomorrow’s function. Charles and Rambally are signed up for tomorrow’s 5KM Port-of-Spain road race.
It’s ahead if anniversary speeches bring word of the June Natex election the group’s requested. If not, one estranged MP said they may again formally request the election. “Failure to follow UNC’s constitution may see resort to legal action,” they speculated.
At the group’s San Fernando meeting, Paray welcomed guests, including, “all my colleagues in the legal fraternity”. Senior Counsel Larry Lalla, who attended Paray’s first briefing, subsequently posted he’ll probably say more in days/weeks ahead.
But there’s confidence the internals will be held, that Persad-Bissessar may also contest, and an announcement may come between tomorrow and the mid-May deadline by which begins the six-week process toward the June 25 internals.
For either party, much more- including pressure, is ahead.