The Op­po­si­tion has replied to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s con­dem­na­tion of the par­ty’s at­tempt to claim cred­it for the do­na­tion of two field hos­pi­tals by the Unit­ed States gov­ern­ment.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the UNC said Dr Row­ley was “can­not iden­ti­fy a sin­gle un­truth in the UNC’s state­ment, thank­ing the Gov­ern­ment of the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca for the do­na­tion of two field hos­pi­tals”.

The UNC state­ment yes­ter­day, re­ferred to Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar words at a vir­tu­al meet­ing of the par­ty on Mon­day.

She said, “How are you go­ing to in­crease bed space, be­cause you are telling us that we are go­ing to have a short­age of bed space as we go along. What are you do­ing? Do you have a plan? Can I make a sug­ges­tion? Can we write to the US or ask the US or oth­er de­vel­oped coun­tries? They can help us with the mo­bile hos­pi­tal units that they have. We saw it when the height of the pan­dem­ic in the de­vel­oped coun­tries that they were us­ing these mo­bile (units) be­cause we can build a hos­pi­tal be­tween now and to­mor­row and next week if this bed short­age—and al­ready you’re telling us it’s filled to ca­pac­i­ty.”

In its state­ment yes­ter­day, the UNC ar­gued that “at no time did the Min­istry of Health or Kei­th Row­ley ever in­di­cate that this op­tion was avail­able. In­deed, Kei­th Row­ley should thank Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for bring­ing up the mat­ter on Mon­day. To be cer­tain, Kei­th Row­ley has much for which to be thank­ful to Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.”

The par­ty went on to state that Dr Row­ley should “thank Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for the 230-bed Cou­va Hos­pi­tal, the 218 ex­tra beds at the San Fer­nan­do Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal, the Ari­ma Hos­pi­tal, the ex­pand­ed fa­cil­i­ties at Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal, the Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal, the Debe Cam­pus and the Ten­nis Cen­tre.

“Kei­th Row­ley should thank Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for writ­ing to the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia for the do­na­tion of As­traZeneca vac­cines,” the UNC ar­gued, adding, “Kei­th Row­ley has plunged this coun­try in­to the worst cri­sis our na­tion has ever ex­pe­ri­enced. In­stead of look­ing for cheap dis­trac­tions, he should fo­cus his mind on procur­ing vac­cines for the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Dr Row­ley has said that the hos­pi­tals ar­rived in T&T last month, well be­fore Per­sad-Bisses­sar made her state­ment on Mon­day.