Trinidad and Tobago's new health minister has two priorities: the $100 million Life Fund promised during the election campaign and providing resources in the health care system to deliver services that are not now available.Therese Baptiste-Cornelis made the disclosure Monday in an interview with the Trinidad Guardian after the formal opening of T&T Registered Nurses Association’s Sixth Quadrennial Health Conference at Hilton Trinidad.
She told the paper she is confident she will make a difference in the delivery of health care because she plans on making her ministry proactive and inclusive.
She told the paper said she had already received a list of various problems that require urgent attention.
The minister said there is no reason why people must go abroad for expensive medical procedures, and noted that she will immediately get to work to set up the $100-million Life Fund to assist sick children with expensive medical attention.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has promised that she would contribute 10 per cent of her salary to the fund and that MPs of the People's Partnership would donate five per cent of their ministerial incomes.
The minister plans to meet soon with the private sector to determine how business people could participate in the fund.
Baptiste-Cornelis said she will also focus on getting the physical resources for various public health hospitals.
“We hear they need beds and linen; we are going to try to find he money wherever it is.”
Baptiste-Cornelis told nurses they have a significant role to play in the reduction of the incidence of certain chronic diseases in T&T and urged them to promote primary health care.
She also promised to review the on-going Oncology Centre to ensure it becomes fully functional within her first term.
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