CHAIRMAN of the board of the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) Sterling Soares is pointing finger at the hospital’s management for not bringing the outbreak of deadly bacteria in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) there to the attention of the health minister in a timely manner.

The bacteria — klibsiella — has killed eight babies out of 13 infected at the institution since June.

Since last Friday the calls for the resignation of health minister Dr Fenton Ferguson have grown louder following the admission that he and his team were only made aware of the situation on October 16.

Soares, yesterday penned a statement in which he said the hospital had not acted fast enough to inform the ministry, and that the board of management had not “recognised a breach in the Ministry of Health/UHWI reporting protocol”, until Wednesday, October 21.

“Professor John Lindo, acting head of the Department of Microbiology at UHWI, reported that the situation was not brought to the attention of the MOH (Ministry of Health) and by extension the minister in a timely manner. A timely report would have triggered a series of actions by the MOH and our international partners including CARPHA and PAHO,” Soares stated.

However, he said, the infection control team at UHWI, who identified the agents, were “confident that the cluster of cases could have been controlled as on many previous occasions”.

The chairman said he had advised Dr Ferguson of the development after being “informed by the press” about a mystery bug in the UHWI nursery. He said the minister then called an emergency meeting of the board followed by another on Saturday October 17 with representatives of the board, the ministry, the South East Regional Health Authority, the management and the technical staff at UHWI.

“The infection control team explained to the meeting the cause of the infection and the management protocol instituted. Our international partners were notified as prescribed by established guidelines. In addition, the minister committed all resources necessary to assist with the management of the cluster of cases,” Soares stated.

The chairman said the hospital is providing counselling and other psychological support to the affected families.

A British attorney-at-law, who says his child was affected by the virus which has killed 18 babies so far between UHWI and the Cornwall Regional Hospital, told the Jamaica Observer he was informed about the spread of the virus at the NICU of one of those hospitals from as early as July.