ST Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen hit back at Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh in a Christmas Day exchange over the state of the public health system.

On Monday, during a visit to Mt Hope Women’s Hospital to see newborns, the minister had said Ameen’s criticism of the health service in a newspaper story had been despicable.

Her remarks had alleged patients sleep on hospital floors but he said that was totally untrue.

Deyalsingh viewed her remarks as an attack on nurses whom he viewed to defend.

Voicing her New Year’s wishes for 2024, she had said, “We need hospitals where people won’t have to sleep on the floor in emergency for days and waiting lists for surgery into the next two years.”

Deyalsingh on Monday had lauded the work of Trinidad and Tobago’s nurses and had urged Ameen to have a softness of heart.

“And I don’t know why we take health as a bobolee to be beaten up. It demoralises the staff when people say things like that.”

“You can’t recognise and put aside the politics for one day of the year? “You say patients are sleeping on hospital floors? That is just despicable, in my view.”

Ameen, via WhatsApp, stood her ground.

“That patients sometimes sleep on hospital floors is, in fact, despicable. “That patients sometimes wait for months for tests and are forced to resort to paying privately for them is despicable.

“That patients who need surgeries are often given dates as far off as two years from their diagnosis during which time they could die is despicable.”

She said it was when patients who depend on CDAP, many of whom are pensioners or on disability or welfare, have to instead buy the medication as CDAP did not have it, which was despicable.

“That health centres that used to open for extended hours under the Kamla Persad Bissessar government to relieve the burden on hospitals have been curtailed is despicable.

“That is the reality, that is not politics.”

She was glad the minister knew of her Christmas wish for a better health system in Trinidad and Tobago.

“I hope Mr Deyalsingh can reflect on the reality that the public health care system is deteriorating under his stewardship and instead of taking such grave personal offence, truly come up with ways to make it better for the sake of citizens who encounter these realities.

“Maybe then he could make my wish come through. Because it is also the wish of many citizens.”

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