THE pump needed for the sterilisation system at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, the island’s main maternity facility, has arrived in the island.

However, it was not clear last night when the pump would be installed to get the critical sterilisation system up and running in order to reduce the risk of babies dying at the maternity hospital.

“They will have the pump installed as soon as possible,” said Rowena Palmer, public relations spokesperson for the health ministry.

The autoclave, the device used to sterilise equipment needed to perform operations, including Caesarian Sections, has been down for several weeks, leading to the death of at least one baby after the child’s mother’s operation was cancelled on four occasions.

Dr Lloyd Goldson, a consultant obstetrician at the hospital, told this week’s Sunday Observer that the breakdown of the autoclave had forced daily cancellations of operations. The machine, he said, was in need of desperate maintenance or replacement.

Palmer said yesterday that the autoclave had been down for a week-and-a-half, but that the pump had been malfunctioning before, therefore hampering the amount of sterilisation that could be done.

“They had back-up plans in place where they had the Bustamante Hospital, National Chest Hospital and University Hospital doing sterilisations in order for surgery to go on,” said Palmer.

She added that although it had been an inconvenience, the maternity hospital had done its best to cope.

“They will be sorting out things to assure that everything goes back to normal,” said Palmer.