(Trinidad Express) A million-dollar insurance policy for doctors, nurses and members of the Ebola response team has been proposed for consideration.
The Express understands that staff at the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) expressed that this would be a fair policy in keeping with what was being offered to police officers who put their lives on the line. In the 2014-2015 national budget, a provision has been put in place where the family of police officers who die in the line of duty will receive TT$1 million.
Director of Health at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) Dr Rodney Ramroop told the Express yesterday that the NCRHA made the recommendation to the Health Ministry and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) following a meeting with staff.
In the event that the Ebola virus reaches this country, the Caura hospital will be used to quarantine and treat victims.
Ramroop said a large team would be required as not only doctors and nurses would be needed but also laboratory technicians, ambulance drivers, porters, janitorial staff, kitchen staff etc.
Ramroop said he thinks it was fair to offer the team compensation to that which the police are entitled.
CMO Dr Colin Furlonge told the Express that the Ministry was actively looking at a proper package.
“We are looking at an appropriate package to ensure that persons are safe and their families are protected in the unlikely scenario that, one, we will have to deal with Ebola and, two, that there might be some adverse outcome of that nature,” said Furlonge.
Furlonge and a team from the health sector recently visited Omaha, Nebraska in the United States, to look at the bio-containment unit set up there to deal with Ebola cases.
He said there is a team comprising more than 20 people, including five doctors and 16 nurses.
He said the team to be appointed in this country must undergo scrutiny.
“They must be hand-picked and selected in terms of experience, expertise, seniority, commitment,” he said, adding that persons would be screened to exclude single parents etc.
He said accommodation would be put in place for members at the Caura hospital and a schedule of some degree of flexibility would be worked out.
Questioned on whether there was any reluctance from health care staff to be part of an Ebola response team, Furlonge replied: “Everywhere in the world people are fearful, it’s not as though we are any different from anyone else.
“I don’t like the idea that anyone would think that our doctors and nurses are more fearful and more coward than anybody else about it,” he said, adding that he was confident that senior doctors and nurses will take up the mantle.
