FUNDING for the Chronic Disease Assistance Programme (CDAP) will not be cut.
This was the assurance given by Minister of Finance Colm Imbert in a release on Wednesday.
In the Standing Committee Meeting of the House of Representatives on Monday said that there was a prosed budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Health of $495 million in the Mid-Year Review.
Imbert said, “This substantial increase in the Ministry of Health’s budget for 2024 will bring the total allocated for public health care in Trinidad in fiscal 2024 to almost $8 billion ($7.9 billion).
“In commenting on the increased spending on health, the Minister said that we have as a country to look at value for money because the amount spent by the Government on health care has increased exponentially over the years, from $1 billion when he was the Minister of Health 22 years ago to the present day expenditure, which is now EIGHT times as much as it was in 2002, although Government revenue has certainly not increased by eight times over that same period. In fact, Government revenues have only increased by less than four times over the same period.”
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The finance minister also took issue with reporting on the issue by the Trinidad Guardian.
He said, “In commenting on the huge sum of money spent on public health care in Trinidad and Tobago, and the need to ensure value for money, the Minister of Finance was very careful to say that the expenditure by Government on free medication was important and that we MUST spend the increased allocation on free medication.
“At no time, did the Minister say or even imply that he was contemplating a cut in the allocation for Chronic Disease Assistance Programme (CDAP), in fact the opposite is true. The Minister NEVER said what the Guardian has alleged and insinuated. The video of the Standing Finance Committee is freely available on the Parliament for all to see and yet the Trinidad Guardian with full access to a recorded public statement still got it wrong.”
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