Opposition Senator Melanie Roberts-Radgman has called on the Government to reconsider Tobago\u2019s fiscal 2027 allocation, saying a reduction of more than 68% in funding for the Tobago Regional Health Authority could put further pressure on essential services.<\/p>\n
According to the Trinidad Express, Roberts-Radgman raised the issue at a PNM news conference at the Opposition\u2019s Port of Spain office. She said the authority had received $750 million for fiscal 2026, compared with less than $240 million allocated for fiscal 2027. She put the reduction at $510,255,500, or just over 68%.<\/p>\n
The senator said the funding covered recurrent expenditure needed to operate the authority. She questioned how it would maintain services while awaiting any Government reconsideration, potentially at the mid-year review.<\/p>\n
Roberts-Radgman described several problems she said were already affecting Tobago\u2019s health system. These included air-conditioning units being out of service at Scarborough General Hospital, surgeries being cancelled or rescheduled, patients being sent to Trinidad and the hospital incinerator being down. She also raised concerns about ambulance services.<\/p>\n
Referring to representations that funding discussions had taken place involving the Chief Secretary, Prime Minister and other Government officials, she argued that discussions did not amount to a commitment. She said the Government had not publicly committed during the budget debate to revising the allocation.<\/p>\n
Roberts-Radgman called on the Prime Minister and the ministers of Finance and Health to explain how the authority would maintain services. She questioned whether the funding reduction could affect staffing or lead to further service reductions.<\/p>\n
The senator also highlighted what she described as an $8,619,000 reduction in the Tobago House of Assembly\u2019s allocation for contract employment. She said the fiscal 2027 allocation was approximately $251 million and asked whether jobs or contract renewals could be affected, particularly following the Chief Secretary\u2019s previously announced hiring freeze.<\/p>\n
Beyond those immediate concerns, Roberts-Radgman argued that Tobago needed investment in infrastructure and supporting systems to benefit from its new airport terminal and develop tourism. She also identified agriculture, the blue economy and the orange economy as areas requiring resources.<\/p>\n
She urged the Chief Secretary, Prime Minister and Finance Minister to reconsider the allocation, saying adequate and equitable funding was necessary for Tobago to contribute to the national economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senator questions how Tobago\u2019s health authority will maintain essential services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}