Trinidad and Tobago is moving full steam ahead toward the integration of traditional medicines in the public health sector. Minister in the Ministry of Health Dr Rishad Seecharan said government is making moves to develop legislation to see this integration come to fruition. Dr Seecharan was speaking on the “Women’s Perspective” programme on Talk City 91.1FM on Sunday.
Trinidad and Tobago’s traditional medicine or “bush medicine” practices are deeply rooted from our African, Indian and Amerindian backgrounds. With an international thrust toward reducing the dependence on pharmaceuticals and the reduction of pharmaceutical bills, Minister in the Ministry of Health Dr Rishad Seecharan said Trinidad and Tobago’s bill is enormous, spending 975 million dollars in 2025 alone.
“The trust of the World Health Organization is to incorporate traditional medicines from around the world into the public health care sector the idea being is to reduce the the need for so many of the of the pharmaceuticals that many national public public health care sectors rely upon and we are giving patients an additional facility to access.”
In December 2025, Dr Seecharan attended the second World Health Organization Global Summit on traditional medicine, held in a New Delhi, India.
“I actually met with the World Health Director General Dr. Tedros and he was emphasizing to me that we here in the Caribbean. We really need to open our eyes to this right now, so the World Health Organization has mandated us as well as all other countries. They are asking for our action plan and we had to make firm commitments in terms of how we are going to progress in terms of putting legislation in place to incorporate traditional medications into our public health sector.”
This is a commitment Dr Seecharan said the government is taking seriously and outlined the action plan toward developing legislation toward the integration of traditional medicines in the public health care system.
“So the first thing would be a committee then we have to look at the labs and do some funding or Legislation in terms of the certifying labs that would test these traditional medications, you know, there are a lot of so-called traditional medications that are out there. We really don’t know what they have in it, as well as they would see they would do this and that you know. So we need to get into the scientific basis of what is really in that medication, so we could verify it to the public.”
Dr Seecharan noted that while in India, connections were made for our medical professionals to become certified in Ayurvedic medicine.
“It’s a two-year course and you become a specialist in Ayurvedic medicine and we are forming a government to government agreement with this facility. Looking at if we could send some of our doctors up there to specialize in Ayurvedic medicine. Of course this lends back to the idea where within the two-year, you know, we have to really sensitize our medical practitioners on how to integrate that in their practice.”
Dr Seecharan said this is another way to focus on the well being of persons on a wholistic level.