Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says that he’ll be instructing Finance Minister Colm Imbert to include in the upcoming 2023 Budget, a “separate and special payment” for every member of the Ministry of Health for their efforts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at a PNM meeting at the Belmont Community Centre on Tuesday night, Dr Rowley said while he did not inform the Finance Minister of the decision yet, one had to understand what it means to be in a position of responsibility where death is the outcome and yet people buckled down to stay in the same rooms and fight for patients lives.
He said, “I know what it is like… so I am brooking no objection from anybody who tells me we can’t do that. We are going to do it as we can afford to.”
Dr Rowley further noted it wasn’t to say Government didn’t recognize what other workers did, but those who walked the extra mile and had the extra exposure rose to the occasion, and the health services were there for the people.
