Plans are underway to create regional job opportunities for young Trinidad and Tobago doctors in other CARICOM nations.
This was confirmed by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the end of the 51st Regular Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government on Wednesday.
Speaking at a media briefing, she revealed that recent medical graduates from Trinidad and Tobago could soon find employment opportunities across the region.
The Prime Minister said she raised the issue with fellow CARICOM Leaders during their talks.
“We do have many, many medical graduates at the general practice level, house officer level, and we have shared with CARICOM members, we are willing to work with them to provide fully trained doctors, majority trained UWI-trained doctors to the other countries.”
Mrs Persad-Bissessar said the high cost of living in the region has been a major concern for CARICOM member states but believes greater regional cooperation can help address the challenge.
Pointing to the medical sector, she noted that shared access to infrastructure provides a solution while allowing access to foreign exchange.
“We have had help from the government of India to set up a National Prosthetic Centre. This is for the fitting of artificial limbs. I have set up that centre, and I’m now saying our services there, of course, the affordable price will be available to our CARICOM brothers and sisters, because when we look at the prices otherwise, you go to the US, they range from 3,000 US to, what was it you told me, 120,000 US.”
In this vein, she also encouraged the region to make use of the Couva Children’s Hospital.
“We have a very highly specialised children’s hospital. When we built it and we left government, no politics here, but we had left it for 10 years, nothing happened. And when I came back in, I’m so proud now that we’ve been able to get that hospital, really for the first time, fully functional. So we offer again, at affordable prices, utilisation of that Couva Children’s Hospital. We’re talking about cost of living and in these three respects in the medical field, if we partner together, again, we can bring down the cost of living.”