THE Ministry of Health has ordered an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the recent death of a baby at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH), and has appointed attorney-at-law Norton Coke to head the panel.

Doctors pulled a live baby from Carolyn Edwards Brown during a C-Section operation at the VJH on September 11.

In a statement yesterday the ministry said “preliminary information” submitted to it on September 25 “revealed that a baby delivered by C-Section on September 11 died sometime later”.

“Further investigation is therefore being undertaken to determine whether the child died of natural or clinical causes,” the ministry said.

This investigation by the ministry is being ordered at a time when the hospital is in the spotlight following recent news reports that pregnant women and their babies are at risk of dying because a piece of device used to sterilise equipment needed to perform operations was out of service.

Yesterday, the Association of Government Medical Consultants issued a statement urging the health ministry to take steps to ensure that patients receive quality care at health facilities.

Said the association: “Whilst the Ministry of Health has launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the events of Mrs Brown’s hospitalisation, the association once again implores the Ministry of Health to ensure the satisfactory staffing and equipping of the major referral centres, the Bustamante Hospital of Children, the Victoria Jubilee Hospital and the Kingston Public Hospital, to ensure the safe and satisfactory care of high risk and complicated patients referred from other hospitals and health centres.

The Ministry of Health meanwhile, said it “empathises with the parents and wishes to assure that the relevant steps will be taken to resolve the situation in the shortest possible time”.

The South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), the ministry said, would also be offering supportive counselling to the parents.