Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

T&T’s health­care sys­tem is un­der se­vere strain due to a per­sis­tent short­age of nurs­ing per­son­nel, a cri­sis that could wors­en if the gov­ern­ment fails to se­cure Cuban doc­tors and nurs­es, says T&T Reg­is­tered Nurs­es’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTR­NA) pres­i­dent Idi Stu­art.

Stu­art voiced his sup­port yes­ter­day, for Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s de­fence of the na­tion’s sov­er­eign­ty in light of re­cent US threats to im­pose visa re­stric­tions on gov­ern­ments that utilise Cu­ba’s over­seas med­ical mis­sions.

For years, T&T and sev­er­al oth­er Cari­com na­tions have re­lied on Cuban spe­cial­ist doc­tors and nurs­es to bol­ster their health­care work­force. How­ev­er, the threats by the gov­ern­ment of US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump have cast un­cer­tain­ty over this arrange­ment.

“We are now even more re­liant on Cu­ba to help ad­dress the se­vere nurs­ing short­age we are fac­ing. If we are un­able to re­verse the US sanc­tions, the sit­u­a­tion will on­ly wors­en, and if we are un­able to ac­cess those spe­cial­ist nurs­es from Cu­ba, one can on­ly imag­ine the dev­as­ta­tion to our health­care sys­tem,” Stu­art warned.

The T&T Gov­ern­ment typ­i­cal­ly re­cruits Cuban nurs­es on three-year con­tracts, but the last group has al­ready re­turned home.

While a fresh batch is ex­pect­ed to ar­rive, the po­ten­tial of US sanc­tions could dis­rupt the process.

Stu­art al­so high­light­ed the on­go­ing ex­o­dus of lo­cal nurs­es to more de­vel­oped na­tions that of­fer sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er salaries.

“Where do we re­place them from? Our in­take at nurs­ing schools is not suf­fi­cient to keep up with the num­ber of pro­fes­sion­als leav­ing the field,” he ex­plained.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, T&T is strug­gling to at­tract nurs­es from tra­di­tion­al re­cruit­ment sources such as the East­ern Caribbean, Nige­ria, and the Philip­pines.

“No Caribbean nurs­es are com­ing here be­cause we are one of the low­est-pay­ing coun­tries in the re­gion,” Stu­art stat­ed.

Spe­cial­ist nurs­es play a crit­i­cal role in pae­di­atrics, sur­gi­cal the­atres, and dial­y­sis units—fields where lo­cal train­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties are none-xis­tent.

The Min­istry of Health had pre­vi­ous­ly in­te­grat­ed spe­cial­ist nurs­ing pro­grammes in­to COSTAATT, but train­ing has not re­sumed in over a year, wors­en­ing the short­age.

De­spite con­cerns over US sanc­tions, Stu­art sup­port­ed Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley’s stance that the na­tion must pri­ori­tise its health­care sys­tem.

“So, while we don’t want to get in­to the nit­ty-grit­ty of US pol­i­tics and for­eign re­la­tions, there are mo­ments when we must stand up as a coun­try and de­fend what is in the best in­ter­est of our health­care sys­tem. Fur­ther­more, an­oth­er im­por­tant as­pect is en­sur­ing the pub­lic un­der­stands the is­sue when form­ing their opin­ions. It’s cru­cial to note that the coun­try typ­i­cal­ly re­cruits spe­cial­ist nurs­es on three-year con­tracts, af­ter which they re­turn home,” he ex­plained.

“If the on­ly penal­ty, as we speak, is that some min­is­ters won’t be able to vis­it the U.S., then that’s a small price to pay to en­sure we have spe­cial­ist doc­tors and nurs­es op­er­at­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he as­sert­ed.

Mean­while, the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T (UDe­COTT), in a me­dia re­lease, has con­firmed that the 540-bed Cen­tral Block of the new Port-of Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal will be­gin ac­cept­ing pa­tients in Ju­ly 2025.

UDe­COTT said the event, ti­tled “The Of­fi­cial Com­mem­o­ra­tion Cer­e­mo­ny for The Prac­ti­cal Com­ple­tion of the Con­struc­tion,” was not an of­fi­cial open­ing but a sig­nif­i­cant step to­ward the next phase of the project.

It said the fa­cil­i­ty’s fi­nal out­fit­ting phase was ex­pect­ed to wrap up by June 30, 2025.

It said The hos­pi­tal was now en­ter­ing Phase Four, which in­cludes the in­stal­la­tion of med­ical equip­ment, sys­tem test­ing, staff train­ing, and fi­nal­is­ing op­er­a­tional se­tups.