By Sue-Ann Wayow
HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and his team at the Ministry of Health should hang their heads in shame following the revelations of the Covid-19 report that was recently made public.
Former medical director at the San Fernando General Hospital Dr Anand Chatoorgoon issued a statement over the weeken and called for the resignation of Deyalsingh as well as the heads of the regional health authorities.
Dr Chatoorgoon spoke about the report of the five-member independent team which investigated clinical outcomes of Covid-19 patients in the public health sector. The report was laid in Parliament last Friday.
He said the report reflected “a shameful and disgraceful indictment of the appalling and atrocious state of the public health sector in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Dr Chatoorgoon said, “Terrence Deyalsingh and his team at the Ministry of Health should hang their heads in shame at the horrors and terrors revealed in this report. Where were they when patients were forced to endure the horrible conditions that existed in many of the public healthcare institutions? Did they not know what the patients were forced to endure? And did they do anything about it or did they just turn a deaf ear to what they heard?”
He also questioned what systems did the Ministry of Health and RHAs put in place so that patients and their relatives could seek help and redress for the awful conditions meted out to patients at these public healthcare institutions and to whom could the patients and their relatives turn for help.
“I myself having treated successfully over 900 patients with Covid, was beseeched by relatives to help get their Covid family members and friends out of these public healthcare facilities where patients were all too often treated in an inhumane manner. It is my view that Covid patients would do better to be treated at home rather than in these public healthcare facilities,” Dr Chatoorgoon said.
The former medical director said the team that was headed by Professor Terence Seemungal did not get enough time to do a thorough investigation and he is suggesting that a more extensive survey and interview of patients who were treated in this parallel healthcare system be conducted.
He added, “As we study the report of the healthcare committee in more detail, there will be in the coming days a lot more to say about the recommendations and findings of the report.”
