Health Minister Fuad Khan yesterday welcomed a team of Chinese doctors and one nurse to the local health care system. The team of ten specialists will be based at the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) for six months, after which there will be a rotation and a new team will enter the country. Khan said that was the result of a collaboration between China and T&T stemming from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit last year.
“At that time we had indicated that we had a problem sourcing neuro-surgeons and we had requested a team to come to our country.” He said he was surprised at how quickly the request was answered. “We were not ready for the quick pace in which the team was sent but we made ourselves ready,” Khan said. Khan said the SWRHA had a high incidence of cardio-vascular disease and diabetes.
He said with the expertise being offered by the Chinese doctors, each of whom has over ten years’ experience practising medicine, he was sure the number of amputations would decrease. “We do need a cadre of specialists to treat with our population,” Khan said. He encouraged the team to do research while in T&T and to help local doctors with research.
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The breakdown of health care professionals coming from China:
• One anesthesiologist.
• One operating room nurse.
• One vascular surgeon.
• One vascular ultrasound technician.
• One interventional cardiologist.
• One general surgeon.
• One pneumonologist.
• One neurologist.
• Two neurosurgeons.
