Primary Health Care Initiative 

The Ministry of Health (MoH) in 2018 requested the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to collaborate with them on an intervention at the five Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) in Trinidad and Tobago through:

1. Improvements in Boards’ governance capacity, the leadership and management skills of the executive management of the RHA’s;

2. Improvements in Emergency Room (ER) protocols and practices; and

3. Strengthening the capacity of the RHAs and the MOH to implement

It was expected that this three-pronged approach would strengthen the leadership capability at each RHA and bring about positive changes to the experience that clients have when they engage with the RHAs. The Project is also designed to establish baselines and indicators by which to measure the success of this transformational initiative, providing evidence of its findings at the end of the project.

Fast Facts

Value of Project: USD 1,862,993.33

Duration: Initially 3 years, extended by 2 additional years due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Donor: GORTT, MoH

Implementing Partners: MoH, UNDP

COVID-19 

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the resources for this project were directed by the MoH to be utilized in the fight against the pandemic and as such all resources were redirected to this objective. This took the form of the procurement of medical equipment, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and COVID test kits. 

Leveraging UNDP’s comparative advantage in the procurement of medical equipment through GPU Health Procurement unit in Copenhagen, the Country Office was able to respond quickly to these requests.  The agility with which UNDP responded to these requests from the MoH has resulted in UNDP being recognized, in the healthcare sector in Trinidad and Tobago, as the agency that can source and procure medical equipment and particularly, SARS-COV-2 Cepheid test kits at a competitive rate, with a consistently high standard of quality assurance. 

Completed Activities

- An assessment of the readiness of the Emergency Departments (EDs) of the RHAs

- Procurement of over 4000 SARS-COV-2 test kits which were distributed to 8 hospitals and 10 district facilities.

- Procurement of medical equipment, inclusive of video laryngoscopes

- Training of ER doctors and nurses in Basic Emergency Care