Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh says he is satisfied with government's budget allocation to the health sector.
His comment came in a brief WhatsApp message to Newsday.
Minister of Finance Colm Imbert presented the national budget for fiscal 2023/24 in Parliament on Monday.
In it, the health sector was given $7.409 billion, the second highest allocation of the $59.209 billion spending for the next year. This year's allocation is $517 million more than it received in fiscal 2022/23.
Not going into any further details, Deyalsingh said he will be "speaking at length" on it during the upcoming budget debate.
Meanwhile, documents uploaded to the Ministry of Finance's website last night said the Ministry of Health wants to treat "chronic overcrowding" at hospitals as part of a proposed Hospital Physical Infrastructure Development Strategy. The strategy has been on the agenda since fiscal 2020.
Other plans for the upcoming fiscal year include upgrading medical equipment at regional health authorities in Trinidad and establishing a Disaster Preparedness Coordinating Unit (DPCU).
The state enterprises programme document for the 2023/24 fiscal year on the Ministry of Finance's website said the Hospital Physical Infrastructure Development Strategy is intended to be implemented over a ten-year period to address hospital infrastructure issues.
It said the proposed strategy provides an opportunity to increase the "efficacy and efficiency" of the health services in the following ways:
Maximising the use of specialist services, both clinical and support, between hospitals to increase efficiency
Treating chronic overcrowding at public hospitals
Providing capacity both in terms of infrastructure and organisational development at all public hospitals to have them accredited as teaching hospitals
Developing alternative solutions to hospitalisation, such as increasing same-day surgery, home care services and introducting new forms of diagnostics.
The document also said the Urban Development Company of TT (Udecott) will continue work on the multi-storey car park in San Fernando, the redevelopment of Port of Spain General Hospital (POSGH) and construction of the Sangre Grande Hospital.
On the San Fernando car park, the document said while the project was completed and operationalised with an estimated expenditure for April-September 2023 of $12.9 million, an additional $3.5 million will be paid in fiscal 2024 to settle retention fees.
The redevelopment work at POSGH is being implemented in four phases "and includes design, construction and equipping including the supply of furniture, fixtures, equipment (non-medical) and signage internal, external and directional.
The new two-storey building will house central stores, engineering and biomedical departments, with storage rooms and workshops at ground level and offices on the first floor. It will cover approximately 2,030 square metres, including a "circulation area," the document said. The project is estimated to cost $1.27 billion.
The estimated
