Trinidad & Tobago Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday said Thursday a generator malfunction which jeopardized the lives of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients and caused panic at the Port of Spain General Hospital Wednesday is another symptom of an already collapsed public health system“The fact of the matter is that it is a health risk to go to the public health facilities. Nothing in the hospital and health centres work. There are no beds. They do not have basic medicines. Critical equipment and facilities are either absent or broken down," Panday said in a media release.
He added, "There are always shortages for doctors and nurses. Some treatments and procedures have been discontinued. Almost daily there are reports of people going to the public facilities and coming out with more injuries than they went in with because of the absence of proper equipment.
“If nothing in the system works then the system has collapsed, and the evidence is showing that the public health system has collapsed. The Prime Minister knows this. He does not trust his own life to his own public health system and that is why he goes to Cuba for treatment.”
Panday said there is a very strong case for accusing the Minister of Health and the Board of the North-Central Health Authority of negligence.
“Are the Minister and the Board asleep? Have they ever heard of preventative maintenance? Don’t they check equipment to make sure they are working?" he asked noting that people could have died Wednesday.
Panday said the situation at public health institutions also pose problems for health workers, putting them under unnecessary and avoidable pressure in circumstances where there are staff shortages and inadequate or malfunctioning equipment.
He observed that instead of dealing with the problems the government blames the doctors and nurses when things go wrong.
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