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The Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) says it will be staying on top of things to ensure that money allocated for the reconstruction of the Central Block of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital is not reallocated “to some other grandiose project in the build-up to the general elections.”
TTRNA president Idi Stuart told the T&T Guardian yesterday that they will be seeking details of the promise by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh that a facility to house 500 beds will replace the Central Block, which was condemned after last Tuesday’s 6.9 earthquake.
Patients from the Central Block have since been relocated to the North Block.
Yesterday, Stuart said while Deyalsingh has indicated that Cabinet had approved the construction of the 500-bed facility Government has not indicated where the funding will come from.”
He said the TTRNA will be monitoring the situation because of the previous experience when the “Couva Hospital, an institution which the country never needed, was given priority over the Central Block, condemned since 2009, the Point Fortin Hospital and the Arima Hospital, none of which have been completed.”
He said for a government “it is not marketable to say you build one block, it is more marketable to say you build a whole hospital. But we will ensure it remains high on their list”.
Stuart said conditions currently on the PoSGH North Block, where patients were relocated after the earthquake, are also “extremely cramped” now. But he said nurses understand there is a bigger goal.
“The bigger goal is the demolition and the construction of a safe central block to house patients and staff,” he said.
The Ministry of Health will be meeting with the association sometime this week and Stuart said they hope to hear what Government’s plans are and will be sharing their input. He said the association will also be taking a structural engineer to the meeting with the ministry.
“We intend to clearly state what our position is,” Stuart said.
Northwest Regional Health Authority CEO Wendy Ali told the T&T Guardian she had been on the PoSGH compound throughout the weekend and everything seems to be going fine. She said work was also being done to facilitate the reopening of the Haematology Clinic tomorrow. In addition, she said ward space was being prepared at the St James Medical Complex to “facilitate further admissions.”