Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has given the assurance that although the External Patient Programme (EPP) is under review it will not be stopped, as it continues to benefit citizens by improving the quality of their lives.
He made the comment at the ministry’s weekly press conference in Port-of-Spain yesterday, even as he dismissed claims that approximately $60 million had already been spent on the EPP.
Addressing the issue during the ministry’s weekly media briefing in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Deyalsingh presented a comprehensive breakdown of the EPP’s operations as he said only $26 million had been allocated to the programme. He said approximately $15 million had been allocated to cover the cost of dialysis while $11 million was allocated to the surgery wait list.
He said the figure of $60 million which was being tossed about in the public domain was a combination of allocations directly related to the EPP as well as other services not connected to the programme.
Seeking to contextualise the EPP, Deyalsingh said it was initially developed to help transform the public health system and assist those requiring immediate medical care such as dialysis and certain types of surgeries but who were unable to afford treatment privately.
Restarted in 2014 via a series of Cabinet notes after it was stopped in 2009, Deyalsingh said the EPP had “noble intentions” but was overtaken by expediency, as it was originally set up to deal with a particular cause and treat with a certain number of people, but had deviated from its specific mandate as policy protocols were not enforced.
Denying that there was a “medical mafia” operating in T&T, Deyalsingh said, “I think it is an unfortunate term and the broad brush approach used to describe it is unfortunate.”
He was referring to claims by the National Workers Union, which has called for the EPP to be abolished as they allege it is corrupt. They have specifically questioned the criteria used to select private institutions to provide dialysis and other services, claiming that there was a group of special doctors who were benefiting from it.
However, Deyalsingh later confirmed they had discovered one case in which a doctor from south Trinidad had been directly benefiting due to his operations in both the private and public sector and the matter was under investigation.
On another note, he predicted the ministry’s costs will continue to rise “exponentially” in the next few years as the number of people accessing dialysis services continues to balloon every year. In 2012, there were 220 people seeking treatment, in 2013, 235 and in 2014, 653, he noted. But the figure was already 577 during the first four months of this year.
He attributed the rise in dialysis treatment to the fact that affected patients were now enjoying a better quality of life as a result of the EPP.
He said it now costs the taxpayer approximately $136,000 per year to provide dialysis services to a patient and Government will soon be facing a huge increase in this area, as non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cardio-vascular diseases continue to take their toll.
“We are projecting that for 2014/2015, this is going to possibly go up to $50 or $60 million and the projection for 2015/2016 is $75.5 million,” he said, noting that while this financial burden was in the area of dialysis alone, they also had to factor in monies for the surgery waiting list component of the EPP.
The minister also said although they had inherited a “messy situation” relating to the construction of two dialysis centres at Mt. Hope and San Fernando, they were now working through the contractual red tape in order to get the buildings completed. This, he said, would ultimately help them reduce bills they currently have to settle with private institutions which provide dialysis services on government’s behalf.