HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is taking the contents of the covid19 committee report seriously, even if others, such as the Opposition UNC, do not.
To this end, Deyalsingh has discussed the implementation of some of the recommendations in the report for health care workers with the CEOs of the regional health authorities (RHAs).
He spoke during the virtual health news conference on Wednesday.
Work is ongoing on rolling out digital vaccination cards and covid19 public-sector safe-zone legislation.
No information was given on the health of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi (who has been diagnosed with covid19 and is in quarantine at home) or a support member of the Prime Minister's delegation who contracted covid19 while in Doha, Qatar.
Dr Rowley announced the creation of the covid19 committee at a news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's on January 15.
Its terms of reference are to identify the profile of the patients who died from covid19; review the definition of “covid19 death” used by the Ministry of Health for consistency with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and standard practice; and comment on the different methodologies for calculating case fatality rate.
The committee's report was laid in the House of Representatives on February 18.
Saying he took the findings very seriously, Deyalsingh described the report as balanced, acknowleging successes while identifying deficiencies and possible solutions to solve them.
"Some of the recommendations have to do with operational issues at the RHAs. The CEOs have the report. I met with them yesterday (Tuesday)."
Issues such as staff accommodation, burnout and meals for staff were discussed in that meeting, Deyalsingh said.
"Those are very important recommendations which we can look at almost immediately."
He added the deficiencies highlighted in the report "really showed up at the height of the pandemic, when systems were most strained." Deyalsingh found it difficult to fathom the Opposition's opposition to the report, he said. Recalling that the UNC was making allegations against the committee before and after it submitted its report, he said, "That is why you can never take anything that the Opposition says seriously."
He highlighted two articles, one of which quoted Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar saying the report was "a pappyshow."
Deyalsingh asked if the UNC from the outset decided the committee was a sham, what was its basis for selectively choosing things from the report to score political points on.
He reiterated, "I found the report was very balanced. It gave the whole spectrum of things that we did very well and things we can improve on."
Some of the recommendations included more being done to help prevent and manage non-communicable diseases (identified as the main contributors to severe illness and death in patients with covid19) and national policy on ICU (intensive care unit) admissions and care of the elderly.
Deyalsingh said he had spoken with Digital Transformation Minister Hassel Bacc
