In my last piece I wrote of the failed public relations campaign of the now Government of Jamaica. On observing the news stories, two common sayings in the local parlance come to mind, “day never light, dog have seven puppy” and “cock mouth kill cock.”

The media swirl that followed the alleged ‘dead baby scandal’ in 2015 is glaringly missing this time around, and the country is supposed to accept the minister of health’s silence on the matter.

There have been calls for there to not be a politicisation of health care, but this was absent last year when a similar matter arose. Not that I advocate for it, as it was wrong last year and would be wrong now, but the yokes should be equal. If prizes can be won for scandals of this nature one wonders why no journalist wants to win a prize and cover the story in 2016.

The current Government spends its time on social media being “transparent”, considered for the good of the country. With that being the bar set and it not being politicisation, then I would say now the ailing health sector should get the same treatment.

The current prime minister went to a hospital and took a picture of what he called two patients in a bed. He captioned it as the indignity of our health care system! He stood on a platform in his party colours and stated that a baby said if the Jamaica Labour Party was in power he would be alive and urged the then prime minister to fire the then minister of health.

The media spent days speaking on the matter but in 2016, mum is the word from the minister of health, Dr Christopher Tufton, and that’s unacceptable. I am no politician but that sounds like careless and manipulative coverage by the Honourable Prime Minister Andrew Holness. This is no different from Donald Trump speaking in a ‘hot’ microphone to drive fear and score political points, only this time the now prime minister knew what he was doing.

In a recent editorial in one newspaper there were calls for clarity and not a danse macabre on the dead babies. This must have been a premonition as there were no such calls in 2015. The attempt in the editorial at providing a panacea was evident. Let us dissect it.

(1) There were questions about information sharing in the Ministry of

Health

(2) A soft acceptance of the now minister not knowing the situation

(3) Pointing of fingers at the civil servants for closing ranks in a veil of secrecy

(4) Diagnosing the cause of sepsis and those at risk to downplay the deaths

(5) Tongue in cheek lauding of the staff for the closure of the ward

(6) Blaming Dr Fenton Ferguson’s approach so it seems worse in 2015 than this time around

(7) A slap on the wrist scolding of the minister equal to “I hope you have learnt”

(8) The epiphany that discussion is needed in the health sector.

This, to me, sounds like a father at school in the principal’s office pleading the case of his beloved son on the verge of an expulsion! Alas! Panaceas and band aids don’t and can’t stop this haemorrhaging. It needs the plaster of truth, honesty and action.

The truth is that while the minister was marketing, serious things were happening and he must stand up and be counted. This is not a politicisation of health, it is a lesson in why health must not be politicised.

I now wonder what the babies have said to the prime minister? He led an irresponsible attack on health care and now he faces a similar scenario.

Irresponsible it is for the minister and his chief medical officer to broad-brush blame the mothers for this infection. Conflicting it is for the minister to form a committee that’s going to administer punishment and correction to itself.

Let us look at facts:

If there was a letter written to the regional director at the South East Regional Health Authority on May 6, 2016 and copied to the board chairman and the minister, how can they judge their own inactions? How will the nation know what was done or not done and how can we be sure that it will come out in the report? Now I am not questioning the integrity of these people, I am merely saying that it is a conflict of interest.

It takes at least five days to get back a swab result from the lab for the wards. And the best time to do a swab on the now-delivered mothers is five days, post-delivery. How then can we broad-brush blame these mothers? When and how were these swabs done?

The organism in question could be present in a single mother and then get transmitted to others. So how can we arrive at the now conclusions reached?

If anyone attended to any or all of these mothers while having a sore throat then they could have been the cause of the infection. Was that checked? Was it checked so quickly?

Were there any predisposing factors like inadequate clinical management of the cases that led to the deaths?

Without these fact checks there is no way to ascribe blame. However, the good minister with his social media marketing tool stated with confidence the cause of death. To any well-thinking individual his statement said, it’s the mothers that caused it, nothing like last year, so let it slide. This is unacceptable.

Where are the people who called for honesty and clarity? Do all these voices now suffer from a strep throat?

Timeline comparison:

July 2015 — infection found at the nursery at the University Hospital of the West Indies;

September 2015 ­— ministry informed of outbreak and relevant public health bodies notified;

October 2015 — news story broke and minister informed;

Minister met with board and health officials from University Hospital of the West Indies and ministry three times over the 72 hours.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) was contacted within 72 hours (PAHO in Jamaica 48 hours later)

May 2016 — Letter written to health officials including the minister;

October 10 2016 — minister sets up local team.

While I hope not to jar the memories of those who lost loved ones nor cause them to relive their misery, the truth must come out. This shows action against marketing.

Dr Ferguson went to the gallows, urged on by the call of the now prime minister, so where will the now minister go?

The minister asked for a week to have the investigation done but the report came back before the week was done. While I would laud this level of efficiency, I strongly doubt that any investigation was done. Instead, in a mad scramble to attempt to cover the issue, there was a reading of the submitted reports and then they came back to the same conclusion. So what of the technocrats who spoke? They spoke based on the data presented, but this was not the ideal process. Notably absent was the senior medical officer who, in May 2016, stated there was a problem with stillbirths at the hospital.

All this while the minister and his team continue to blame the poor mothers for the deaths.

The “committee” reported two other bacteria found. I would love for the minister and his team to make public the report of this investigation, including the names of the clinical auditors that participated in it.

The investigation, in my eyes, is a farce and the country has been lied to and the poor mothers blamed, while the true issue has not been exposed. This is merely another public relations stunt, and it needs to be exposed.

This is a Government that says yes first for the photo op and works the details out later at the peril of the nation. After all, they are true marketers in every sense. They identify a need, blow it up, but fail to provide the services required.

Jasper Blake has worked in Jamaica’s health sector for several years.