A committee examining local health system in which doctors operating in private practice also work in the public sector, will examine infant mortality problems in T&T and the Children’s Hospital as well, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said yesterday.
The committee is also mandated to conduct an audit of the level of health care delivery by the 21-year-old regional health authority system.
Members will give recommendations on the state of dual systems—doctors with private practice working in the public sector—and review how operations in both systems are governed in keeping with the new vision for health care.
Team members are Dr Winston Welch (chairman), Howard University president Dr Wayne Frederick, Professor Karl Theodore, Charles de Gannes, Dr Adesh Sirjusingh, Valerie Alleyne-Rawlins and Dr Albert Persaud.
Speaking at the launch at his St Clair office, Rowley lauded Frederick’s involvement which he said would bring a view from outside T&T on the matter.
When the team reports by April 2016, Rowley said its recommendations may be factored into Government’s mid-year review in the event that changes were needed.
Rowley, noting an observation in the newspapers that the PNM’s style was “government by review,”said he had taken that as a compliment.
He said in T&T, “we have been doing a lot of things and spending a lot of money and getting a lot of complaints about money we have spent, what we are doing and dissatisfaction associated with the efforts.”
He said doctors, for instance, would agree that before going forward to “prescribe” on issues, one had to diagnose and to understand situations, “so we are not put out by the idea that we are reviewing T&T’s status.”
Rowley echoed sentiments by Welch that the team’s work was not aimed at anyone or any sector.
He said it was an opportunity for national community to know what was working and not, costs and what is available or not, “and how to make things better in what is available to us.”
Rowley said he had been in Cabinet in 1991 when expenditure on health as well as public expectation on that sector had grown.
“We are spending more and more on education and health and getting less and less. This is because some of the system is inherently unworkable.”
Rowley said from a personal standpoint, he was uncertain if RHAs had brought any significant handling in health care delivery as compared to what the ministry might have done.
He said if he was wrong, Government needed to know and the team’s exercise was geared to give a final answer on that. Noting that health had the third largest budget allocation, he said Government had to “look at what we are doing.
“We see so many stories from RHAs, usually bad, our health care clearly is not obsolete or antiquated but it attracts dissatisfactions and questions, including corruption in the system,” he added.
The team’s report will be presented to him and will be open to the public.
The team will note reports from previous commissions on enquiry on health. The PM urged the public to make valid contributions, as opposed to complaint, since Government would welcome reasonable contributions.