Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says his ministry will revert to Nipdec (National Insurance Property Development Company Limited) to procure medication and pharmaceuticals and will return to doing so on an annual contract basis.
Deyalsingh was speaking with members of the media after viewing the birth of newborn babies at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital, yesterday.
“We inherited a messy situation when it came to the procurement of pharmaceuticals. Traditionally, Nipdec is the procurement agency with the Ministry of Health and has been for many years,” he said.
He said the last administration went to Parliament and gave the regional health authorities the authority to purchase their own drugs.
Deyalsingh said Nipdec was then placed on a monthly contract to procure pharmaceuticals.
“That is not good policy. National Health Services never got off the ground. We are going to revert to the old system and put Nipdec back on a yearly contract,” he said.
He said that he would go to Cabinet soon with the request.
“It has been already rectified to a certain extent and we have gone to suppliers on the private market and took pharmaceuticals from them,” he said.
Concerning other health issues, Deyalsingh said the major concern right now was the H1N1 virus, as well as dengue, chikungunya and mosquito-borne Zika which was coming to T&T, he said.
He said Zika was in other parts of the Caribbean and was probably already here.
“The best line of defence is the individual home owners, the community, to eradicate the breeding sites,” he said of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Deyalsingh said there had been no increase in the number of fatalities due to H1N1. (CC)