Parents of dead babies didn’t get ‘fighting chance’, says Cuthbert
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Labour Party deputy spokesperson on health, Juliet Cuthbert, has lashed out at the Ministry of Health for the outbreak of the bacterial infection at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) and the Cornwall Regional Hospital, which has resulted in the death of 18 of 42 infected babies.
Klebsiella and Serratia bacteria reportedly caused the infections.
Cuthbert told OBSERVER ONLINE on Tuesday that the outbreak says a lot about the health care system and the people at the top.
“I am sitting here and I am so distraught that 18 babies had to die before it was brought to national attention, we need to do something,” Cuthbert said. “And to hear the permanent secretary say that it was not important to inform the public after five babies died, it is mindboggling to me.”
She went on to express disgust at statements made about bringing people from overseas to assist, despite having microbiologists and epidemiologists in Jamaica, and how basic the advice offered was.
“We heard some of them saying we just need to sanitise the place,” stated the JLP’s deputy spokesperson on health.
“Even though we do have bacteria in hospitals from time to time, but after five babies died I am saying, did we get anybody in? Those are the questions I want to ask. What was done after the five babies died? Did we try to mitigate that?” Cuthbert told OBSERVER ONLINE.
David Wright