PATIENTS are dying of heart problems while the Rowley Government has failed to deliver on a 2019 promise to construct a laboratory to carry out life-saving measures.
Instead, the Government has built a nine-storey hospital car park at almost double the cost of the critical health facility.
Medical experts say that many patients have lost their lives over the years because of the absence of a Bi-Plane Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory to conduct angiograms and angioplasty procedures.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death in Trinidad and Tobago.
Four years ago, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh stressed the urgency of constructing the laboratory, especially in light of the high incidence of non-communicable diseases.
The next year, the Government’s Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) included a $70 million allocation for the construction of the facility.
The Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDECOTT) put out a request for proposals to design and build the laboratory on 14,800 square feet at Level 3 of San Fernando General Hospital.
Despite the urgency and importance of the medical facility, no work has been done.
Pressed in Parliament two weeks ago by Caroni East Member of Parliament Dr. Rishad Seecheran, Deyalsingh said construction of the lab was being considered through an agreement with the authorities in Austria.
MP Seecheran noted that Deyalsingh had previously made similar promises.
He said there is only one such laboratory at the Mount Hope Hospital.
South-West Regional Health Authority, of which San Fernando General Hospital is a unit, serves an estimated 600,000 citizens.
An angiogram is a procedure that uses X-ray imaging to see the heart’s blood vessels.
The test is generally done to determine whether there is a restriction in blood flow going to the heart.
Angioplasty is a procedure used to open blocked arteries caused by heart disease.
The process restores blood flow to the heart muscle without the need for open-heart surgery.
Dr. Anand Chattergoon, former Medical Director at the San Fernando Hospital, said that without the laboratory, “many poor patients have died.”
Dr. Chattergoon said that in the private medical sector, an angioplasty could cost up to $50,000, and removing the blockage in the arteries a further $50,000.
He stated: “Poor people simply cannot afford.”
He said the Ministry of Health has a waiting list of patients, “but it could take years to get your procedure done.”
Dr. Chattergoon slammed Deyalsingh as being “unreachable and unapproachable.”
A cardiologist said a catheterisation lab would save lives, reduce the damage done to the heart, and cut back on the time spent in hospital.
The lab would increase the chance of survival and of returning as productive members of society.
While the Government has sidelined the essential facility, it recently launched a parking garage in the vicinity of the hospital at a cost of $133 million, $5 million more than the initial budget.
Seecheran said: “It is plain that the Government’s priority is not the cardiac lab but the car park.”
He recalled that during the tenure of Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a proposed parking facility adjoining the hospital was converted into a teaching hospital.
The Couva Hospital was also constructed during that period, the MP noted.
Seecheran observed that a strong and resilient public health system is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
He stated: “Deyalsingh has presided over billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money with serious flaws in our public healthcare sector.”
When the Government revealed plans for the lab, interventional cardiologist Dr. Ronald Henry noted that accessing cardiac care is “one of the problems that beset people without means.”
Dr. Henry said a cath lab “provides the road map of the arteries.”
The medical community responded with great enthusiasm to the announcement of the proposed lab, detailing the medical and economic benefits.
But years later, more heart patients have died and the project has not yet gotten off the ground.
