By Sue-Ann Wayow
MORE than $100 million has been allocated by the Health Ministry for fiscal 2022 for contract employment in various departments.
This was announced by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh during the second session of the Standing Finance Committee in Parliament on Monday. The Committee is chaired by House Speaker Brigid Annissette-George.
The minister who again thanked everyone in the health sector as well as the private sector for their hard work and dedication, gave a breakdown as to how exactly the almost $6 billion allocated in the Budget to the health sector will be spent when questioned by Opposition members.
The exact allocation is $5,439,087,690.
Referring to contract employment, Deyalsingh said, “These positions are to fill places like the blood bank, the quality department, tobacco unit, internal audit, facilities management, project management, epidemiology. The total number of contract positions are 343. This also includes contract positions for interns where we currently have 371 interns here and also for foreign medical recruitment.”
There was also an allocation of $10.5 million for short term employment.
Deyalsingh said the current number of short-term employees was 71 and the ministry needed to employ more people for the Insect Vector Control Division, Trinidad Public Health Lab, Queen’s Park Counseling Centre, facilities management, corporate communications and others.
“I don’t have the numbers that we are going to be employing but those are the departments under which we will be employing short-term contracts as need be,” he added.
Deyalsingh said renumeration for members of cabinet appointed committees in the sum of $588,490 was required since there were approximately nine committees and one of the main expenditures was for the clinical assessment committees.
There was also an allocation of $25 million for salaries and cost of living.
Drugs money
Referring to the section, Drugs and Other Materials and Supplies of which $241 million is allocated, Deyalsingh said the line item, referred to the National Insurance Property Development Company Limited (NIPDEC), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) strategic fund, and for the expanded programme on immunizations for both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical and also for vaccines which can also be supplemented at a later date.
The minister also said there will be a decrease in drugs bought under the VEN (vital, essential, necessary) list.
Deyalsingh said, “Over the years, this VEN list has grown out of the needs of Trinidad and Tobago and part of the remit of this government was to rationalise that. In 2016, there were 857 items in the Ven list. In 2017, it was reduced by 57 items to 800.”
He said that the Government has been reducing duplication of drugs because companies go to the Drug Advisory Committee to advocate their brand “which does not serve the public interest well.”
He added that with HIV drugs, Government was able to save over $700 million by going to the PAHO strategic fund instead of direct distributers.
“We are constantly reviewing the VEN list to give the patient the best value for money,” Deyalsingh said.
While wastage was to be minimised, the world was suffering from “just in time” delivery and there will be some expired goods, Deyalsingh added.
To be submitted
The Opposition members requested certain information from the minister of which he could not readily provide and requests were made for him to submit the information at a later date.
Amongst those were a listing of the expired drugs in the past year and its cost, a list of buildings in need of repair, an inventory of Covid-19 test kits, the procurement process for the contracts for repairs and maintenance and a list of the vacancies for the various regional health authorities.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert also said he will instruct the Chief Personnel Officer to compile a complete list of all outstanding collective agreements.
