KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) MP Daryl Vaz says that the Opposition party will flood the Government with questions about the latest dead babies incident, when the House of Representatives resumes today.

Speaking at the JLP’s mass rally in Richmond, St Mary, Sunday night, Vaz said that after the recent experiences with the issue of 19 babies who died in public hospitals earlier this year, the JLP could not trust the Government’s handling of the issue and would have to seek answers in Parliament.

“You know from I hear about premature babies my antenna stand up, because it was the same thing with the 19 babies the other day…You going to be hearing more, because Tuesday man caan put on him drawers fast enough to handle the question them in a Parliament. I am going to ask some questions about what transpired,” Vaz said.

Dalley said Sunday that he is satisfied that the required procedures were followed at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, before the order was given Friday for the burial of 65 dead babies said to have died at the institution over a period of time.

“I’m satisfied that all the steps were taken for the burial of these babies. We have authorisation and they were presented to me,” he told the Jamaica Observer, Sunday.

However, he had halted plans on Friday to start burying the dead babies, after questions were raised about the number of babies’ bodies seen at the morgue.

The minister said he wanted to make sure that all efforts were made to ensure that the mothers had signed agreements for the burial.

The burial issue comes in the wake of the dead babies scandal that resulted in then Health Minister, Dr Fenton Ferguson, being transferred to the Labour and Social Security Ministry on November 9.

South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) explained Sunday that the pile-up of dead babies at the Victoria Jubilee hospital was due to delays in the issuing of burial documents triggered by a number of factors.

But, Vaz told Labourites attending the rally that the party wanted more information in Parliament.

“I tell Horace Dalley that we don’t trust the system so whatever they want to say, we want to hear the truth about every one of those 65 babies…we want to know when they died and how they died, because we don’t trust the system,” Vaz added.

He said that if Dalley wants to gain the respect and confidence of the people of the country, he should deal with the incompetence of the regional health authorities.

“If you can’t fire them, then send them on leave until such time as a proper investigation has been done to see what has caused the decline in the health sector,” he said.

Balford Henry