Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh has written to the President of the medical board of Trinidad and Tobago asking Dr Steve Smith to meet with an opposition team as soon as possible to discuss the June 19th announcement by Health Minister Jerry Narace that Cabinet has approved the establishment of a "special panel for the registration of doctors".Gopeesingh's letter says this is a matter of serious national concern since such a process will allow the minister to circumvent the Medical Board and allow 20 Cuban doctors to be granted licences to practice in Trinidad and Tobago.
Gopeesingh suggests that the panel is in effect "a parallel Medical Board which Minister Narace is seeking to establish." He noted that there was a similar development in 2003 when the then Health Minister Colm Imbert "brought similar legislation to Parliament to facilitate the hiring of 125 United Nations and Cuban doctors into the local public health institutions."
He said it happened after the constitutionally established legal Medical Board's insistence that it would not license these doctors on the basis that they did not meet the requirements of English proficiency and medical qualifications.
"The Government found a way to legally circumvent this position, and in the mean time, devised new legislation to ensure that the Medical Board would be under its control. By 2007, when the 'parallel Board' expired legally, the Government brought a controversial amendment to the Medical Board Act of this country, seeking to give the Government political influence by its power to appoint seven members," he noted, adding that while the measure succeeded in Parliament it has not successfully addressed the ongoing problem of a shortage of medical personnel in the public health system.
Gopeesingh said the reverse has happened with "senior doctors leaving in droves from the public hospitals in the past two years." He said the result is that the standard of health care has deteriorated drastically in the country, to the point where citizens now face real dangers of losing their lives in the nation's hospitals.
He said almost 150 Consultants and 270 House Officers Registrars positions remain unfilled while hundreds UWI trained doctors have emigrated because they have not given proper employment in the Regional Authorities, and because of the extremely poor and unsatisfactory working conditions.
"It is in this context that I extend an invitation to all stakeholder groups in the medical profession to meet and deliver their views and suggestions as to how this ongoing problem can be rectified, or at least, dealt with in Parliament, and indeed, if there is any legal action than can ultimately be taken, since the medical welfare of the country is at stake and the lives of citizens can be innocently lost," Gopeesingh said.
The letter is copied to Dr. Soliaman Juman, President, T&T Medical Association, Dr. Rajendra Persad, President, Medical Practitioners Association of T&T and Dr. Frank Ramlakhansingh, President, General Practitioners Association of T&T.
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