Statement by Dr. the Hon Hamza Rafeeq at a Media Conference

	Ministry of Health
	Health Sector Reform Programme of Trinidad & Tobago Bringing Health care closer to you !

Statement by Dr. the Hon Hamza Rafeeq at a Media Conference

Ministry of Health 10-12 Independence Square
Thursday 18^th January 2001

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media I want to thank you for attending today’s media conference and wish you all the best for 2001. Before I proceed any further I would like to formally introduce Dr. the Hon. Fuad Khan as the Minister in the Ministry of Health. I am extremely optimistic that we would share a very productive working relationship as we both enlist your support in achieving the Ministry’s main goal, that of improving the health status of our citizens.

As you know the health sector is in transformation mode and as we continue this process I would like to share with you some of priority agenda items for 2001.

Priorities for 2001

1. Commence National Health Insurance Programme Pilot Project.
As you may be aware the programme now comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance. However of Ministry of Finance will be working closely with the Ministry of Health to implement this programme.
When this programme is fully implemented it would mean that all citizens of this country would have access to a set of basic services at both the private and public sector, thus making quality health care more accessible to every citizen regardless to his\her ability to pay for the service. The target for this year is to commence the pilot programme.

2. Commence Designs of the Oncology Centre.
The government plans to construct a national Oncology centre, fully equipped with modern, state of the art technology to treat cancer patients. This is an enormous exercise and a lot of the work has already been done. However there is still a lot more to do and we expect to commence designs this year. In the meantime we will be upgrading the St. James Medical Centre for the treatment of cancer patients.

3. Establishing a National Screening Programme for Cancer
The Ministry will establish a National Screening Programme for breast, cervix and prostate cancers. This programme is aimed at prevention and early detection of these cancers.

4. HIV\AIDS
Latest statistics estimate that approximately 17,000 persons in Trinidad and Tobago are HIV positive. The Ministry of Health will be acting more aggressively in dealing with this epidemic. I would share briefly with you some of the strategies and programmes being pursued to this end.

a. The Ministry of Health is currently engaged in negotiations with PAHO to purchase anti retroviral drugs at a reduced rate in order to begin treating HIV\AIDS patients.

b. Establishing Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS as a national programme. Currently this programme which reduces the spread of the virus from mother to child is undertaken only at the major hospitals and few health centres. However we intend to make this treatment available at all health care facilities throughout T&T.

c. Speaking to All Secondary School Children on the subject of HIV/AIDS

d. Training of selected Secondary school teachers and children as counselors.

e. Expanding the RAPPORT programme.

f. Make HIV/AIDS a Notifiable Disease.

5. Reduce All Surgical Waiting Lists to One Year and Less.
At present in some areas patients have to wait up to four years for elective surgery. The Ministry of Health through the RHAs intends to reduce the waiting list to less than one year. This will be done through a series of strategies which will be announced in due course.

6. Options Offered to Doctors and Nurses—Half of Staff Transferred to RHAs
Several strategies are being adopted to deal with this priority area and I assure the doctors and the nurses that this will be done in such a way manner as not to put them at any disadvantage.

7. Complete Refurbishment/Rebuilding and Operationalisation of 40 Health Centres
One of the foundations of our health sector programme is to bring quality health care closer to the communities and to shift the focus away from the hospitals. Providing the necessary infrastructure is a prerequisite to accomplish this task. While all our Health Centres will be re-built or refurbished our target for this year is forty. This will include the completion and operationalisation of the Princes Town District Health Facility.

8. Commence Construction of Scarborough Hospital
The designs for this hospital should be completed shortly and construction of this new hundred bed facility will begin later in the year.

9. Commence Construction of Point Fortin Hospital

10. Open Surgical Wards at San Fernando Hospital in New Wing

11. Open Urology Theatre at San Fernando Hospital

12. Open New Obstetric Theatre at San Fernando Hospital.

13. Transfer Ophthalmology, ENT, and Neurology Services to Mt Hope
We will be dedicating more time and resources during the next two years in commissioning Mt.Hope . We will be giving more information in due course. However let me mention that we will be pursuing some involvement of the private sector .

14. Commence Pilot Project in Community Care.
This Project is aimed at looking after elderly patients and abandoned children who do not need acute hospital care in Homes run by NGOs.

15 Establish Emergency Health Service as a National Service
At present the EHS serves the entire country but it is still in its pilot phase During this year we intend to formalize the EHS as a national service.

16 Establish a Health Promotion Council
A lot of the disease burden comes from chronic non-communicable diseases and directly related to lifestyles. We intend to implement an aggressive Health Education and Promotion campaign to firstly, educate and secondly influence lifestyle changes. This will be done through a series of activities including the establishment of a Health Promotion Council which will be a multi sectoral Committee. This Council will be an advisory body to the Ministry of Health on Health Promotion matters.

17 Begin Implementation of the Human Tissue Transplant Act.
This Act was passed in Parliament. However for implementation the necessary infrastructure and regulations need to be put in place .

18. Transform Ministry of Health Head Office to Execute its New Role of monitoring, regulating and policy formulation.

19. Commence Training of 300 Nurses and 200 Nursing Assistants.

20 Begin Implementation of Mental Health Plan.
The Government has adopted the new Mental health Plan and it is the intention of the Ministry to begin implementation this year.

21 Enact The Health Services Quality Act.
This Act will set the standards and monitoring mechanisms for Health care in Trinidad and Tobago.

22. IS/IT: Begin Implementation of IS/IT Programme for Ministry and RHA’s

23 Complete the Review of Dental School Curriculum .
All of the Plans mentioned here will be achieved through the involvement of the Ministry of Health and the Regional Health Authorities.

Ladies and Gentlemen I thank most kindly for attending today’s media conference. I am pleased to announce that most of the information given here today is available on our new website www.healthsectorreform.gov.tt