Aabida Allaham
Friday, July 17th 2009
PRESIDENT of the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Steve Smith,
says the dissent among members is being caused by the Health Ministry's
insistence on bending the rules so Government can hire Cuban doctors.
He said the common belief maintained by the majority of council members
has always been that foreign doctors must write a medical exam and an
English exam if their native tongue is not English before they can
register to be part of the local medical fraternity.
"For the life of me, I don't know what got into the council members that
night (last Tuesday). One minute they're red, the next minute they're
green," he said yesterday in response to questions on why the decision
to employ foreign doctors to fill the gap within the health sector had
created so many factions within the board.
A meeting organised by the board to discuss the issue ended prematurely
after doctors stormed out because of their differences on Tuesday night.
In fact, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association, Dr
Solaiman Juman, told the Express they never got around to discussing the
issue, as the meeting erupted after several members questioned the
legality of the meeting that was hosted by the MBTT at the Eric Williams
Medical Sciences Complex in Mount Hope.
"It was a very contentious issue that led to allegations and counter
allegations towards council members...it seemed as if nobody on the
council could agree on anything," Juman said.
An informed source told the Express eight of the 11-member council were
told by Smith to call the meeting to discuss the issue. Smith, however,
said he never called the meeting, despite allegations by several other
council members that he did.
Secretary general of the Medical Practitioners Association of Trinidad
and Tobago, Dr Balkaran Ramkissoon, who was in unison with Smith, said
the resolution clearly states that foreign doctors should write the
exams and it needs to stay that way.
According to Smith, the Cuban doctors are not inferior, but it would be
a grave injustice to allow one set of doctors from a country with stark
operating differences to practice on the people of Trinidad and Tobago,
even if Prime Minister Patrick Manning chooses to seek medical treatment
in that country.
Trinidad News, Trinidad Newspaper, Trinidad Sports, Trinidad politics,
Trinidad and Tobago, Tobago News, Trinidad classifieds, Trinidad TV,
Sports, Business (17 July 2009)
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161505465
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