PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – President of the Council of the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Neil Singh, says a number of Venezuelan migrants are performing duties in the country as medical practitioners without the necessary clearance from the council.
Speaking on a local radio program, Singh said medical fraud is a global issue and Trinidad and Tobago has not been spared.
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“A lot of Venezuelans have come over practising dentistry…and that one of the doctors we have complained about to the fraud squad is a Venezuelan. He is actually writing prescriptions.
“We don’t know if these are actual doctors, we don’t know what level of training they have and whether their level of training meets our basic standards,” Singh told the programme.
“That’s why you have a council that regulates the profession to ensure the quality of doctors you put out there,” he said, recalling an incident where a woman was brought before the courts, charged TT$60,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) and the following day continued doing her “practice”, this time without identifying herself as a doctor.
A number of Venezuelan nationals have fled to Trinidad and Tobago to escape the political and socio-economic conditions in the South American country brought about also by the economic embargo placed on the country by the United States in protest over the election of President Nicolas Maduro, which it insists had been fraudulent.
