(Trinidad Guardian) An “overworked” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar was flown directly to her private residence at Phillippine, south Trinidad for recommended bedrest minutes after she landed at Piarco International Airport from a seven-day official visit to Belize, United States and Barbados. She was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, shortly before 6 om on Monday for “a battery of tests” and was discharged a few hours later.
“The Prime Minister is overworked and unfortunately she has not been taking care of herself as she should, “ Foreign Affairs and Communications Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan said yesterday. He had accompanied Persad-Bissessar to the hospital. He said the Prime Minister was committed to “improving the quality of life for all the people of T&T and she is working beyond the call of duty to ensure this.”
Rambachan said she was putting “country before self at the expense of her health. She is overworked.” He emphasised the PM worked “very hard and long hours.” Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner met Persad-Bissessar at the airport after which she was taken by helicopter to the San Fernando General Hospital helipad and then by car to her private home in Phillipine.
Warner was acting PM during her absence from Trinidad and Tobago. He said the need for an assistant to travel with Persad-Bissessar was heightened after she fell ill in Barbados on Monday. Persad-Bissessar did not speak with the media at Piarco Airport. She arrived at her home at 1.30 pm with cardiologist Dr Rasheed Rahaman and national security adviser Gary Griffith in tow.
She was seen embracing her husband, Gregory Bissessar, and several members of her house staff. Later on she stepped out on her front balcony and waved to members of the media camped outside. Rambachan said Persad-Bissessar would address matters involving the MSJ at the second anniversary rally tomorrow evening at Mid Centre Mall, Chaguanas. She was expected to host a mobilisation meeting last night in preparation for tomorrow’s rally.
Rambachan said the rally was a new way of the Government accounting to the population. He said it was “an act of responsibility, an act of responsible governance.” He said it would provide an opportunity for the population to “give feedback to the Government on how the country was being managed.”
Rambachan, who is one of the deputy political leaders of Persad-Bissessar’s United National Congress (UNC), said the PP Government would issue more than 200,000 copies of a 15-page document on the Government’s achievements in tomorrow’s newspapers. He said the document also would be posted on Government Web sites.
Another deputy political leader of the UNC, Housing and the Environment Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal, said: “The rally is on. The PM is fine and is staying at her Phillipine home. I met her on arrival at Piarco today and she is in an upbeat mood.”
