THE Jamaica Manufacturers’ Association (JMA) yesterday added heat to the dead babies scandal, calling on Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to insist on the release of the full findings of the health audit commissioned by Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson in May this year on the status of the public health system.

The call by the JMA came as the Opposition fired a fresh salvo at Dr Ferguson, questioning his credibility in the matter and repeating its call for the full audit to be made public.

“We find it egregious that the minister has ordered an audit and has chosen not to release it to the public, especially in light of the circumstances coming to the fore now. Secondly, the lack of transparency and accountability that has been shown in the handling of this matter leaves a lot to be desired,” the JMA said in a release.

“With that said, we call on the HPM (honourable prime minister) to insist on the immediate release of the full audit to the public, and that the necessary persons are held accountable for this tragedy where applicable,” the JMA added, while expressing condolence to the affected families.

Earlier yesterday, Opposition parliamentarian Daryl Vaz launched an attack on the Government after the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) released what it said were excerpts of the audit leaked to the party. At a mass rally in Clarendon Sunday night, Opposition spokesman on finance Audley Shaw read excerpts from the audit.

“Based on the timeline and what is being revealed by snippets of the report, it is now clear that the Government must immediately publish the complete audit report; and if it confirms what is now in the public domain, we would expect that sanctions would have to be levied against the minister and all others involved in this grand cover-up. The country demands no less,” Vaz said.

The information released by the JLP counters Ferguson’s statement on October 20 that he only learnt on October 16 about the bacteria outbreak that resulted in the deaths of 18 premature babies at two of the island’s major hospitals.

The babies were among 42 infected by klebsiella and serratia between June and September this year at the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) at University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston and Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay.

Since the news emerged in the media on October 16, a 19th baby has died.

According to the information released by the JLP, the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) looked at five hospitals — Kingston Public, Spanish Town, Princess Margaret, Linstead, and National Chest — for the audit.

On the day the audit team arrived at CRH, there was an infectious outbreak in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the document said.

“There were several breaches in infection control protocols in all hospitals: disposable instruments were being reused, but the method of sterilisation was inadequate; the gowns used in the NICU are supposed to be disposable. However, they were hung at the front of the unit and shared by different people going to different babies.”.

The document also said that at one hospital the medical staff were observed to be wearing jewellery. “When asked, they defended their actions, saying that there were no studies to show that there was an increased risk of infection by them wearing jewellery,” the document said.

“At one hospital the staff showed us ‘fungus’ growing between the glass in the operating theatre; equipment was stored in areas not designated for storage; [and] staff were using gauze meant for dressings to dry their hands as there was a shortage of hand towels.

The document also said that the team found a shortage of drapes and bed linen, and termites were noted in the ceiling of one hospital.

“The door to one operating theatre could not be fully closed and remains ajar during surgery,” the document added.

Ferguson and his technocrats in the health ministry had called a news conference on September 2 in order to, according to him, “make the findings [of the audit] public” and to inform the country of the actions taken and the additional actions that will be taken to improve the public health system.

However, they released the audit’s main findings only, arguing that it would not be prudent to issue the full audit report because it would prejudice the health facilities named.

Ferguson had ordered the audit after the media reported the Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA) complaining about the shambolic state of the public health service.

In the May 3 edition of the Sunday Observer, JMDA members painted a picture of a public health system on the brink of collapse, with hospitals lacking equipment vital for surgeries and doctors working in sub-standard conditions that pose serious risk to patients and themselves.

“We have flies in the operating theatre. We have to reuse single-use instruments that aren’t disposed of, but [are] washed and placed in antibacterial solution and used on another patient,” a member of the JMDA who works at May Pen Hospital in Clarendon, told the Observer.

Another member of the JMDA, who is assigned to Spanish Town Hospital and who opted for anonymity, said pads and pencils used with electrosurgical machines, which send electrical current to blood vessels to stop bleeding, are also reused.

“The pencils are soaked in disinfectant and reused till they stop working,” the doctor said. However, he pointed out that the reused pencils run the risk of burning the patient and causing electrical fires.

Another doctor said they often practise what they term ‘socialist medicine’, as leftovers from an individual’s surgery are used on someone else.

“We have a mesh that is used to fix hernias. We ask patients to buy them as the hospital always runs out. When we don’t use all of the sterile mesh in the surgery for the patient who bought it, we soak it in disinfectant and use the leftover on a patient who couldn’t afford to buy their own,” he said.