Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is failing to tell the public that the Government has not been paying suppliers for the necessary chemical reagents needed to screen blood, says medical practitioner Dr Rai Ragbir.
Ragbir was speaking with the media at his Chaguanas office yesterday morning in response to a newspaper report in the Newsday which claimed that there was a shortage of blood and chemicals to process the blood.
“I think that he (Deyalsingh) is being less that honest. The problem in T&T is not a lack of blood, this is something that has been perennial. But since January of this year, the Ministry of Health has been very tardy in its payments to a supplier for reagents to screen the blood that donors donate,” Ragbir said.
He said it was important since screening was done for diseases such as the HIV1 and HIV11 viruses, Hepatitis, Syphilis Malaria, Chagas Disease and more. “This is something critical because the RHAs are saying that they have problems for surgeries, they don’t have blood for surgeries. So we cannot lie to the public.”
Ragbir said there should be no cutting of the CDAP drug list since there is a shortage of CDAP drugs for people with cardiac problems, diabetic, psychiatric and hypertensive patients. Ragbir said there was also a shortage of reagents for dialysis since suppliers are also not being paid.