President of the Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) Idi Stuart has said the five-member committee appointed by the Government to review the working of the country’s health system, as it relates to covid19 care, should have included a nurse.

The Prime Minister announced the establishment of the committee at a news conference on Saturday. It is being headed by dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the St Augustine Campus of UWI Prof Terence Seemungal.

The committee also includes consultant anaesthetist and intensive care specialist Prof Emerita Phyllis Pitt-Miller; former chief medical office Dr Anton Cumberbatch; consultant anaesthetist Dr Vidya Dean; and director of the Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development Prof Donald Simeon.

Dr Rowley said the committee was formed in response to the view in some quarters that the quality of public health care was substandard and contributing to the large numbers of covid19-related death.

The committee is expected to present its findings to the Government on Friday and they will be made public.

But speaking on Tobago Channel Five’s Rise and Shine programme on Monday, Stuart said while the members may be well-qualified, competent professionals, they should have included a nurse.

“It is extremely disappointing yet again that nowhere in that five-member team that they found it fit to put a nurse,” he said. “You have five persons, doctors and you do not believe that a person in the nursing field would be able to ascertain the shortfalls within the system. And I would have believed that the best group that you could have introduced would have been the Nursing Association.”

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