Dear Editor,

While out on my early morning run in the rain before 6 am on Saturday, I passed hundreds of citizens huddled under huge umbrellas, waiting to register for free medical care from the US Navy. The USNH Comfort docked at the Port of Spain Cruise Ship Complex this week.

This intake area was set up less than 100 metres from the Port of Spain General Hospital. Police cars blocked entry into the street to manage the large crowd. (The last time we saw persons waiting in the rain like that was the Burna Boy Concert in Tobago).

This scene came less than a month after another massive free medical initiative — the Hands International mission, led by Trinidad-born surgeon Dr Reynold Steve Agard and a team of 120 medical professionals from California and other parts of the USA. Over four days at the Community Hospital of Seventh-day Adventists, they treated and performed surgeries for thousands, with more than 8,000 people registered before the mission began. They even announced plans for an additional 2,000 free cataract surgeries later in the month.

In both cases, the turnout was overwhelming — clear evidence of the desperate need for accessible healthcare in our country. If you cannot afford private medical care, you are often left waiting, suffering, and hoping for a miracle.

What makes this even harder to accept is knowing that many qualified doctors in Trinidad and Tobago are not being employed — a fact highlighted recently by a young female doctor on social media. How can we have an overburdened healthcare system and unemployed medical professionals at the same time?

These foreign medical missions should be welcome additions, not lifelines for thousands who feel they have no other option. It’s time for a serious national conversation — and action — to ensure that quality, timely, and affordable healthcare is available to every citizen all year round, not just when a foreign team visits.