Min­is­ter of Health Ter­rence Deyals­ingh is said to be re­cov­er­ing af­ter vis­it­ing the hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day due to a “per­sis­tent cough.”

In a state­ment is­sued yes­ter­day, the Min­istry of Health ex­plained that Deyals­ingh vis­it­ed the hos­pi­tal for a fol­low-up vis­it af­ter con­tract­ing bron­chi­tis in De­cem­ber 2024.

The Health Min­istry said, “While Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh is re­cov­er­ing, the fol­low-up vis­it at the hos­pi­tal is due to a per­sis­tent cough which is be­ing ad­dressed.”

While the min­istry did not pro­vide de­tails as to which hos­pi­tal Deyals­ingh vis­it­ed, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands the Health Min­is­ter sought treat­ment at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex.

Fur­ther in­for­ma­tion as to how long he was there was not avail­able.

How­ev­er, the Min­istry of Health said Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh ex­tend­ed his grat­i­tude to all who have ex­pressed con­cern for his health.

His hos­pi­tal vis­it came af­ter the min­is­ter was at the Grand Stand of the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah where he over­saw progress at a mass vac­ci­na­tion site for in­fluen­za shots.

Proud of the PNM

Deyals­ingh was asked about the mood of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment af­ter Sat­ur­day’s gen­er­al coun­cil meet­ing, which of­fi­cial­ly saw all 21 PNM Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment sup­port­ing Stu­art Young when Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley steps down.

Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh gave the par­ty a clean bill of health fol­low­ing Sat­ur­day’s meet­ing.

“The health of the PNM? Look, I have been in ac­tive pol­i­tics now for over 16 years. And what you will see world­wide is that democ­ra­cies evolve. They change. We don’t stay stag­nant, and what you saw was a healthy de­bate in a vig­or­ous, evolv­ing, strong democ­ra­cy. And I’m so proud as to how we came out of it,” said Deyals­ingh.

The min­is­ter dis­missed ques­tions that Young’s el­e­va­tion should be privy to a one-man one-vote sys­tem em­ployed in the PNM in­ter­nal elec­tions.

“That is now a moot point, Gen­er­al Coun­cil met yes­ter­day and all 21 MPs are firm­ly be­hind Min­is­ter Stu­art Young,” said Deyals­ingh.

The St Joseph MP al­so ex­plained he had no is­sue with the an­nounce­ment of Young as in­com­ing prime min­is­ter, but he ex­plained that he ex­pect­ed a spe­cif­ic process to be fol­lowed.

“I nev­er had con­cerns. All I want­ed was for a process to take place and for the par­ty to be part of the de­ci­sion-mak­ing process. That hap­pened yes­ter­day, and I will­ing­ly and un­re­served­ly, give my full sup­port, full, full sup­port to Min­is­ter Stu­art Young,” said the Health Min­is­ter.

Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley an­nounced his plan to leave pub­lic of­fice, af­ter 45 years in pol­i­tics, be­fore the con­clu­sion of the PNM’s term in of­fice. Gen­er­al elec­tions are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly due this year.