Dr Frank Anthony has been tipped to be Minister of Health and to lead the fight against the novel coronavirus under the PPP/C government, even as a new task force is being established to deal with measures to eliminate the spread of the virus here, sources say.
“We are right now looking at how soon we will restructure the response,” Anthony told Stabroek News.
“What we have been doing since President (Irfaan ) Ali took over, and this has been one of his priorities, is we have been trying to meet with all the key stakeholders to understand what the previous government actions were and to plan from there. We have held meetings with those stakeholders previously involved to get a proper assessment,” he added.
Prime Minister, Brigadier (retired) Mark Phillips and Attorney General Anil Nandall are also on the COVID Task Force (CTF).
Nandall yesterday said that work to complete his first draft of measures to take to a multi-stakeholder meeting was delayed as he was locked out of his Ministry of Legal Affairs office for the second day.
“Today the former Attorney General refused to hand over the keys to the Permanent Secretary as was the protocol arranged through the Ministry of the Presidency. As a result, I was forced to request the intervention of the Commissioner of Police, after which a bunch of keys was delivered to the PS after 2 pm this afternoon and then that bunch of keys could not have opened the door,” he told Stabroek News.
“I was forced to request the assistance of a carpenter to open the locks … the doors were not opened until after 3 pm this afternoon. Important legal business of the government, including beginning to draft new COVID taskforce regulations, arising out of consultations which President Ali had at a multistakeholder forum, had to be put on hold. Other important government business, which I am not at liberty to disclose at this stage were also put on hold,” he added.
“It is a national consultative multistakeholder approach, and therefore we have to receive inputs from various national stakeholders and craft a set of regulations which address the concerns and meet the expectations of all these sectors. Striking a vital balance between maintaining a standard public healthcare system conducive to the elimination of the virus while at the same time ensuring the functioning of other important sectors of the economy, including the productive and business sector, so as to keep business going , people employed…etcetera,” he said.
A similar posture was echoed by Anthony who said that until there is a vaccine for COVID it will be priority of government.
It is no surprise that Anthony has been chosen as the Minister of Health as he had led the addresses on health during the PPP/C campaign.
Then, he had said that other plans to boost the health sector included the resuscitation of the controversial specialty hospital project.
He had said that should the PPP/C return to government, specialty care would be available at hospitals across the country and persons would not have to travel to foreign countries and to Georgetown to access such care.
Prior to 2015, the PPP/C had been in power for 23 years and poor health care had been a major issue over those years.
Anthony, a former Minister of Culture, had bemoaned what he said was the tremendous suffering of the health sector and had charged that little had been done by the David Granger-led APNU+AFC government to transform it during its tenure. He charged that medication and critical drugs had been in short supply at hospitals across the region.
“Look at what is happening in [the] health sector, there are long waits for medical care. Lack of drugs and medicine; families are helpless. Is this the kind of health care system that we want? We must all say enough is enough,” Anthony had told an Anna Regina rally this year.
