New National Prosthetics Centre Positions T&T as Regional Hub

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has inaugurated the National Prosthetics Centre in Penal, aiming to provide free, high-quality rehabilitation services while establishing Trinidad and Tobago as a regional medical leader.

Prime Min-is-ter Kam-la Per-sad-Bisses-sar says the launch of the Na-tion-al Pros-thet-ics Cen-tre in Pe-nal will ex-pand health-care ser-vices in Trinidad and To-ba-go (T&T) while po-si-tion-ing the coun-try as a re-gion-al hub for re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion ser-vices and train-ing with-in Cari-com.. Speak-ing at the of-fi-cial open-ing of the fa-cil-i-ty on Sat-ur-day, Per-sad-Bisses-sar said the Cen-tre marked a mile-stone in health-care co-op-er-a-tion be-tween T&T, In-dia and Jaipur Foot USA.. She said cit-i-zens who re-quire pros-thet-ic limbs will now be

able to ac-cess ser-vices lo-cal-ly and free of charge in-stead of trav-el-ling abroad or fac-ing long de-lays and high costs.. “Many will now have the op-por-tu-ni-ty to walk again, work again and live with greater con-fi-dence and in-de-pen-dence,” she said.. Per-sad-Bisses-sar said the Cen-tre rep-re-sent-ed the Gov-ern-ment’s com-mit-ment to en-sur-ing that cit-i-zens were not left be-hind be-cause of dis-abil-i-ty, ill-ness or cir-cum-stance.. The Prime Min-is-ter linked the open-ing of the fa-cil-i-ty to the his-to-ry of

the In-do-Trinida-di-an com-mu-ni-ty, not-ing that the day’s ac-tiv-i-ties be-gan at the first port of ar-rival of in-den-tured labour-ers be-fore mov-ing to Brechin Cas-tle in Cou-va and end-ing in Pe-nal.. “In many ways, to-day’s jour-ney re-flect-ed the ja-ha-jee ex-pe-ri-ence it-self, from ar-rival and strug-gle to achieve-ment and em-pow-er-ment,” she said.. Per-sad-Bisses-sar said the project built on the suc-cess of the Ar-ti-fi-cial Limb Fit-ment Camp held at Di-vali Na-gar in 2025, where more than 800 peo-ple re-ceived

pros-thet-ic limbs.. She said the Gov-ern-ment was now mov-ing from tem-po-rary as-sis-tance to es-tab-lish-ing a per-ma-nent na-tion-al ser-vice.. Pa-tients at the Cen-tre will re-ceive ser-vices rang-ing from in-take and fab-ri-ca-tion to fit-ting and re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion.. The Prime Min-is-ter al-so placed sig-nif-i-cant em-pha-sis on train-ing and skills trans-fer for lo-cal health-care pro-fes-sion-als.. She said or-thopaedic spe-cial-ists and health-care work-ers in Trinidad and To-ba-go would re-ceive hands-on train-ing in fab-ri-cat-ing and fit-ting pros-thet-ic limbs.. “In do-ing so, we

en-sure that the knowl-edge, tech-nol-o-gy and long-term fu-ture of this ser-vice re-main with-in our na-tion-al health-care sys-tem,” she said.. Per-sad-Bisses-sar said the train-ing com-po-nent would al-low Trinidad and To-ba-go to build lo-cal ex-per-tise while re-duc-ing de-pen-dence on over-seas providers.. She added that the Cen-tre had the po-ten-tial to be-come a re-gion-al train-ing in-sti-tu-tion for CARI-COM coun-tries seek-ing spe-cialised re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion ser-vices.. “Im-por-tant-ly, this Cen-tre al-so po-si-tions Trinidad and To-ba-go as a re-gion-al hub for spe-cialised re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion

ser-vices across Cari-com, with the po-ten-tial to serve pa-tients through-out the Caribbean and to evolve in-to a re-gion-al cen-tre for pros-thet-ics ex-per-tise and train-ing,” she said.. The Prime Min-is-ter said co-op-er-a-tion be-tween Trinidad and To-ba-go and In-dia had ex-pand-ed be-yond diplo-ma-cy in-to health-care and phar-ma-ceu-ti-cals.. She point-ed to on-go-ing col-lab-o-ra-tion in-volv-ing haemodial-y-sis sup-port and the In-di-an Phar-ma-copoeia aimed at im-prov-ing ac-cess to af-ford-able med-i-cines.. Per-sad-Bisses-sar thanked In-dia’s Min-is-ter of Ex-ter-nal Af-fairs Dr.. Sub-rah-manyam Jais-hankar, the

Gov-ern-ment of In-dia, Jaipur Foot USA, health-care pro-fes-sion-als and the Min-istry of Health for their role in es-tab-lish-ing the Cen-tre.. She said the fa-cil-i-ty sym-bol-ised trans-for-ma-tion and progress for Pe-nal and the coun-try as a whole.. “A place once shaped by hard-ship, sac-ri-fice and strug-gle now be-comes the home of heal-ing, re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion and hu-man dig-ni-ty,” she said.

National Prosthetics Centre, Trinidad and Tobago healthcare, prosthetic limbs, rehabilitation services, CARICOM medical hub, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Jaipur Foot USA