Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says the launch of the Na­tion­al Pros­thet­ics Cen­tre in Pe­nal will ex­pand health­care ser­vices in Trinidad and To­ba­go (T&T) while po­si­tion­ing the coun­try as a re­gion­al hub for re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vices and train­ing with­in Cari­com.

Speak­ing at the of­fi­cial open­ing of the fa­cil­i­ty on Sat­ur­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Cen­tre marked a mile­stone in health­care co­op­er­a­tion be­tween T&T, In­dia and Jaipur Foot USA.

She said cit­i­zens who re­quire pros­thet­ic limbs will now be able to ac­cess ser­vices lo­cal­ly and free of charge in­stead of trav­el­ling abroad or fac­ing long de­lays and high costs.

“Many will now have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to walk again, work again and live with greater con­fi­dence and in­de­pen­dence,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the Cen­tre rep­re­sent­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to en­sur­ing that cit­i­zens were not left be­hind be­cause of dis­abil­i­ty, ill­ness or cir­cum­stance.

The Prime Min­is­ter linked the open­ing of the fa­cil­i­ty to the his­to­ry of the In­do-Trinida­di­an com­mu­ni­ty, not­ing that the day’s ac­tiv­i­ties be­gan at the first port of ar­rival of in­den­tured labour­ers be­fore mov­ing to Brechin Cas­tle in Cou­va and end­ing in Pe­nal.

“In many ways, to­day’s jour­ney re­flect­ed the ja­ha­jee ex­pe­ri­ence it­self, from ar­rival and strug­gle to achieve­ment and em­pow­er­ment,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the project built on the suc­cess of the Ar­ti­fi­cial Limb Fit­ment Camp held at Di­vali Na­gar in 2025, where more than 800 peo­ple re­ceived pros­thet­ic limbs.

She said the Gov­ern­ment was now mov­ing from tem­po­rary as­sis­tance to es­tab­lish­ing a per­ma­nent na­tion­al ser­vice.

Pa­tients at the Cen­tre will re­ceive ser­vices rang­ing from in­take and fab­ri­ca­tion to fit­ting and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so placed sig­nif­i­cant em­pha­sis on train­ing and skills trans­fer for lo­cal health­care pro­fes­sion­als.

She said or­thopaedic spe­cial­ists and health­care work­ers in Trinidad and To­ba­go would re­ceive hands-on train­ing in fab­ri­cat­ing and fit­ting pros­thet­ic limbs.

“In do­ing so, we en­sure that the knowl­edge, tech­nol­o­gy and long-term fu­ture of this ser­vice re­main with­in our na­tion­al health­care sys­tem,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the train­ing com­po­nent would al­low Trinidad and To­ba­go to build lo­cal ex­per­tise while re­duc­ing de­pen­dence on over­seas providers.

She added that the Cen­tre had the po­ten­tial to be­come a re­gion­al train­ing in­sti­tu­tion for CARI­COM coun­tries seek­ing spe­cialised re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vices.

“Im­por­tant­ly, this Cen­tre al­so po­si­tions Trinidad and To­ba­go as a re­gion­al hub for spe­cialised re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion ser­vices across Cari­com, with the po­ten­tial to serve pa­tients through­out the Caribbean and to evolve in­to a re­gion­al cen­tre for pros­thet­ics ex­per­tise and train­ing,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter said co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and In­dia had ex­pand­ed be­yond diplo­ma­cy in­to health­care and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

She point­ed to on­go­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion in­volv­ing haemodial­y­sis sup­port and the In­di­an Phar­ma­copoeia aimed at im­prov­ing ac­cess to af­ford­able med­i­cines.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar thanked In­dia’s Min­is­ter of Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs Dr. Sub­rah­manyam Jais­hankar, the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia, Jaipur Foot USA, health­care pro­fes­sion­als and the Min­istry of Health for their role in es­tab­lish­ing the Cen­tre.

She said the fa­cil­i­ty sym­bol­ised trans­for­ma­tion and progress for Pe­nal and the coun­try as a whole.

“A place once shaped by hard­ship, sac­ri­fice and strug­gle now be­comes the home of heal­ing, re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and hu­man dig­ni­ty,” she said.