Across multiple public health facilities across Trinidad and Tobago, chronic disease patients are facing growing frustration and logistical hardship as critical medications for cancer, diabetes, and heart conditions remain persistently out of stock, prompting calls for urgent intervention from the country’s top health official. When reporters from the *Sunday Express* visited the St James Medical Complex last Thursday, multiple outpatients shared their experiences of being turned away when trying to refill routine prescriptions through public health programs. These accounts have since been corroborated by patients at other major care sites, including the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, Arima Hospital, and several regional community health clinics. Many of these patients access their long-term medications through the government’s Chronic Disease Assistance Programme (CDAP) or directly through public hospital dispensaries, and have been informed that the drugs they depend on are no longer available for outpatient distribution at their local facilities. Instead, patients are routinely being told to travel to dispensaries in other, often distant, regions to collect their prescriptions – a requirement that imposes heavy strain on people already managing serious, debilitating health conditions. A 62-year-old outpatient from Diego Martin, who completed cancer treatment at the St James facility earlier this year, explained that for the past two months, she has had to travel more than an hour to dispensaries in Arima and Sangre Grande to get the medication she needs, when she previously could collect it at either St James or Port of Spain General Hospital. Multiple breast cancer outpatients echoed her struggle, noting that they have been forced to search across the entire public health system to find doses of their required treatments. Among the most critical shortages reported is Faslodex, a branded hormone therapy drug (generic name fulvestrant) that is the standard of care for treating advanced or metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Anonymous medical staff working at multiple public facilities confirmed that shortages are not limited to cancer treatments: essential medications for people with diabetes and chronic heart disease are also frequently out of stock. One of the most impacted diabetes medications is Jardiance (generic name empagliflozin), a once-daily oral drug that not only lowers blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes, but also reduces the risk of cardiovascular death, cuts hospitalizations for heart failure, and slows progression of chronic kidney disease. For most patients, Jardiance is only available through public hospital dispensaries, and many report being unable to access the drug through the public system for months. Even patients who can afford to pay for private supply are struggling: generic versions of the drug cost roughly $12 per tablet, but are also in short supply, while the original branded formulation costs around $22 per tablet, putting it out of reach for most low- and middle-income patients. One senior medical professional at a leading public health facility, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid professional retaliation, noted that the root of the crisis lies in outdated procurement systems. The official called for an immediate full review of the government’s medication acquisition process, noting that unnecessarily long procurement timelines are creating consistent stockouts for the most commonly used drugs for chronic conditions, including those for cancer and diabetes management. *Sunday Express* reporters attempted to reach Health Minister Dr Lackram Bodoe to request comment on the patient complaints and proposed reforms, but received no response. Requests for comment from Dr Tim Gopeesingh, chairman of the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), also went unanswered.