Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

With near­ly $3.5 bil­lion al­lo­cat­ed to the Min­istry of Health in last year's na­tion­al bud­get, Health Min­is­ter Jer­ry Narace says the Gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue to boost its bud­get al­lo­ca­tion to health­care. "I am sure the Prime Min­is­ter would treat us well this year. This gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues to in­crease the bud­get al­lo­ca­tion to health­care be­cause we are tak­ing your health­care needs se­ri­ous­ly," Narace said.

He stat­ed re­peat­ed­ly that the Gov­ern­ment's com­mit­ment to health­care was a part of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's (PNM's) be­ing what he de­scribed as "their broth­ers' and sis­ters' keep­er." In 2007, the Min­istry of Health re­ceived about $2.9 bil­lion in the na­tion­al Bud­get, which was upped to $3.3 bil­lion in the Gov­ern­ment's fis­cal pack­age for 2008.

Top-of-the-line can­cer care

Ac­cord­ing to Narace, Trinidad and To­ba­go has the best can­cer treat­ment cen­tre in the Caribbean. "When they ask you about can­cer, tell them about the new Na­tion­al Ra­dio­ther­a­py Cen­tre (NRC). You might not know this. We now have the best can­cer treat­ment, the NRC, in St James. (It is) com­plete­ly re­fur­nished. It is now the best in the Caribbean and it now of­fers a full range of ser­vices.

"You know why they (mem­bers of the Op­po­si­tion are) get­ting on wild so and some vot­ing one way in the same par­ty and the oth­er vot­ing (an­oth­er way)? They are run­ning scared be­cause they (are) look­ing around Trinidad and To­ba­go and they (are) see­ing Vi­sion 2020 com­ing in­to re­al­i­ty. Narace al­so re­vealed that in­fant mor­tal­i­ty de­creased in Port-of-Spain by 34 per cent; in San Fer­nan­do by 36 per cent; and in Mount Hope by 45 per cent. He did not in­di­cate the pe­ri­od over which the re­duc­tions oc­curred. He added that the Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal will be fin­ished in April, next year.

Narace was speak­ing at the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's eighth po­lit­i­cal-ed­u­ca­tion meet­ing held at the Ma­yaro Recre­ation Ground yes­ter­day af­ter­noon. It fol­lowed a five-point mo­tor­cade from ar­eas such as Skin­ner Park in San Fer­nan­do, Pic­cadil­ly Greens in Port-of-Spain, the Ca­roni Bird Sanc­tu­ary car park and the Ed­die Hart Ground. Speak­ers at the meet­ing in­clud­ed Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Hazel Man­ning, who de­liv­ered wel­com­ing re­marks, and her hus­band, Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, who was the fea­ture speak­er at the pro­ceed­ings.