JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, July 7, 2025

Deyalsingh slams Nakhid's call for CoE on COVID handling

by

Gail Alexander
950 days ago
20221130
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh makes gis contribution during a private motion on the Government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic during yesterday's sitting of the Senate.

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh makes gis contribution during a private motion on the Government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic during yesterday's sitting of the Senate.

Courtesy Parliament of T&T

The UNC is tak­ing away St Joseph con­stituents' time for at­ten­tion to their needs.

Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh made the com­ment as he re­buked UNC Sen­a­tor David Nakhid for bring­ing a mo­tion on Tues­day on Gov­ern­ment's pan­dem­ic man­age­ment, when it was Deyals­ingh's con­stituents' day and they've been af­fect­ed by floods and land­slides.

"I wish I could say it's a plea­sure to be here," Deyals­ingh said in the Sen­ate while speak­ing on Nakhid's mo­tion.

"Be­cause, as an MP, Tues­day is my con­stituen­cy day - the day when I meet con­stituents. And I'd have pre­ferred to have been in my con­stituen­cy of­fice to­day meet­ing and treat­ing with my con­stituents who've been af­fect­ed by flood­ing, land­slides and every­thing else that goes with it.

"But here am I to­day be­ing called away from treat­ing with my con­stituents' re­al prob­lems - deal­ing with COVID. What an ab­solute abuse and waste of this Sen­ate's time! The UNC ought to be con­demned for wast­ing the Sen­ate's time - to­day of all days - on a mo­tion like this!"

Nakhid wants a com­mis­sion of en­quiry on the Gov­ern­ment's COVID-19 man­age­ment. But he'd opened by ex­tend­ing UNC's "com­mis­er­a­tions and sup­port" to flood vic­tims in all the cir­cum­stances "and calami­tous events that ac­com­pa­nied such flood­ing."

Nakhid went on to blame Gov­ern­ment for the flood­ing and went fur­ther un­til re­mind­ed by Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo of his COVID top­ic.

Nakhid claimed Gov­ern­ment "mis­han­dled the pan­dem­ic, was in­com­pe­tent and had clue­less lead­er­ship." He said the sit­u­a­tion re­quired the "creme de la creme, not as­pir­ing pro­fes­sion­als or hope­fuls which de­scribed what was im­ple­ment­ed."

Nakhid said the med­ical pro­fes­sion­als weren't the he­roes of the sit­u­a­tion, but doc­tors and nurs­es were. He stat­ed nurs­es hadn't got­ten their bonus yet.

Slam­ming Deyals­ingh 's man­age­ment, Nakhid added, "We got some­one with a BS in phar­ma­cy. In no coun­try did I find any­one less qual­i­fied to face chal­lenges, who we had in place was like ap­point­ing the Cul­ture Min­is­ter to cap­tain T&T's foot­ball team. They didn't even have a qual­i­fied doc­tor in charge. He should have re­signed...!"

Nakhid claimed T&T had Cari­com's high­est death rate and that pri­vate sec­tor in­volve­ment was need­ed there.

Deyals­ingh, among replies, said, "He speaks about the 'creme de la creme'! Dr Roshan Paras­ram (Or­der of T&T!), you want more 'creme de la creme' than that?

"Dr Maryam Richards - Cha­co­nia Gold! (award) , Dr Av­ery Hinds - Cha­co­nia Gold! Dr Michelle Trot­man - Cha­co­nia Gold! Pro­fes­sor Chris­tine Car­ring­ton - Cha­co­nia Gold! That is' creme de la creme'!"

Deyals­ingh said if, for in­stance, act­ing UNC Sen­a­tor Dr Tim Gopeesingh was "so won­der­ful," why didn't he re­duce the ma­ter­nal mor­tal­i­ty rate when he was in the PP Gov­ern­ment. Deyals­ingh said un­der Gopeesingh's tenure, 1.5 women died month­ly in hos­pi­tals in child­birth - but on­ly one died for this year in his own tenure.

Stat­ing the ben­e­fits of the par­al­lel health sys­tem and that over 2,200 med­ical staff were em­ployed for the par­al­lel health sys­tem, Deyals­ingh asked where the pri­vate sec­tor would get so many per­son­nel.

"Ab­solute pop­py­cock! T&T nev­er had a short­age of ven­ti­la­tors or per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment. But the UNC wants to make T&T look like a bas­ket case in this era of the Big Fib - as I can't say Big 'L' ."

Deyals­ingh said the UNC's way to treat COVID-19 in­volved sun­shine and hy­drox­cholo­quine.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

8 hours ago
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

8 hours ago
Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford’s holistic mission

to transform the lives of girls

Yesterday
Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Nicole Drayton’s breast cancer journey–Fear, faith, and fighting back

Yesterday