(Trinidad Guardian) Hours after yesterday’s commissioning of the San Fernando Teaching Hospital at Chancery Lane, the Government secured a TT$950 million concessional loan from the Chinese government to build a children’s hospital in Couva. The signatories at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday afternoon in Port-of-Spain were acting Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal and China’s Ambassador to Port-of-Spain Yang Youming.
Moonilal said the “priority healthcare facility” would be outfitted with state-of-the-art medical equipment for diagnosis and treatment. Moonilal said the hospital was also intended to attract patients from the wider Caribbean and Latin American region. He said the facility is expected to be “an integral part of the People’s Partnership Government’s Hospital Physical Infrastructure Development Strategy.” Moonilal said the Government also intends to construct hospitals at Point Fortin and Central Trinidad.
Ambassador Yang in his address, said he hoped the government loan would help improve the health system and for the children in particular. Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran is out of the country on vacation and is due back on January 2.