00:00A bed sign online birth registration system has been launched at the San Fernando General Hospital
00:07with the aim of expanding across all RHAs and private hospitals as well.
00:13Minister of Health Dr. Lakram Bodo says birth registration secures a child's identity
00:18and says no child should be without a name or birth certificate and this system will help with that.
00:25By moving this process online, we are ensuring that families across Trinidad and Tobago
00:31can register births quickly, securely and conveniently.
00:37This system reduces paperwork, it minimizes delays and guarantees that every child's identity is protected from the very start.
00:47Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hussein says currently parents are given a small piece of green Bristol board
00:55with key information to physically take to a Registrar General's office and carry out the necessary paperwork.
01:02All of that will be illuminated because at the bedside we now have, through the office of the Registrar General,
01:09the provision of tablets or iPads on the wards.
01:12So therefore there will be personnel walking around the wards or available on the wards
01:17in order to register the births on that device.
01:21The forms will be thereafter printed once all of the documents are presented in terms of verification.
01:27The forms are signed and therefore immediately the birth is registered within seconds.
01:33He says they are starting with the SWRHA because they already have the right IT framework set up to allow it.
01:40But the Minister of Health has given the commitment to ensure it can be adopted at all RHAs and then within private hospitals.
01:49Meanwhile, Minister Hussein defended government's move to increase some of the fees associated with the registration of births and deaths which take effect today.
01:59When you look at the cost for the preparation of a one birth certificate, because of the security features of that document,
02:08those birth certificates are specially ordered.
02:10They have to get to Trinidad.
02:12They have to be printed.
02:13We have staff to check the validity of the information before the certificate is printed.
02:17And therefore it was a subsidized cost by the state.
02:21In fact, the cost with the increase still includes some sort of a subsidy for those birth certificates.
02:27Cindy Raghumantika Singh, TV6 News.
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