SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — A defiant Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has pushed back at the Opposition People’s National Party’s (PNP) insistence that he should resign in the wake of reports that more than 24 babies died at Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Kingston in June.

Both parties are in full campaign mode ahead of the general election, which is constitutionally due this year.

While stressing that the Government empathises and sympathises with those who are grieving, the health minister flayed the PNP for its suggestion that the deaths resulted from systemic problems in the country’s health-care system.

He sought to make a distinction between the recent deaths and those that occurred under a previous PNP Administration.

“I say to the orange people [the colour worn by members of the PNP], don’t mix us up with your nightmare of 2015. You weren’t even prepared to admit that there was a problem. You even classify the unfortunate deaths as not being babies in the real sense. We should, and did, always condemn you for that misguided leadership. And resignation was well-deserving and the change of Government in 2016 was the right thing to do by the people of Jamaica,” stated Tufton.

“We will continue to press on. We will continue to work hard,” added Tufton during a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Westmoreland Central workers’ awards ceremony held Sunday at Sean Lavery Hall in Savanna-la-Mar.

Last Friday, the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) reported that a spike in baby deaths in June was due to prematurity and not because of an infection outbreak.

But Opposition spokesman on health Dr Alfred Dawes rejected the explanation and called on Tufton to release the hospital’s full mortality data from 2020. He said there are reports which indicated there were 229 neonatal deaths at the hospital between October 2023 and June 2025.

Dawes argued that prematurity is a medical condition and the deaths point to a deeper systematic failure in the care for newborns.

The medical doctor charged that the maternity hospital continues to experience overcrowding, understaffing, and outdated infrastructure. He said there is a chronic lack of essential resources such as cooling blankets, ventilators, and proper parenteral nutrition for neonates.

Dawes added that these deficiencies compromise the hospital’s ability to manage high-risk pregnancies and provide life-saving neonatal care.

However, Tufton argued that the report was not written by him but by technocrats at the regional level and assessed by chief medical officer in the health ministry, Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie.

“When they come out and criticise a report that is written by the technical people, they are actually saying that the technical people are telling them a lie. That is the nature of the orange people and how desperate they are for State power,” argued Tufton.

“We must call on the people of Central Westmoreland, the people of Jamaica to charge them with recklessness. Reject them at the polls and give this Government, led by Andrew Holness, an opportunity to continue to provide leadership, because that leadership has resulted in improvement to public health infrastructure and public health services,” he added.

In 2015 the health minister in the then PNP Administration, Dr Fenton Ferguson, was removed from his post following calls for his resignation as a result of the death of 19 premature babies from infections at University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew and Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.

Tufton said the JLP has learned from the PNP’s mistake.

“Our position is very clear. We empathise, we sympathise, and must give support to those who are going through the trauma of the experience of premature risk and premature deaths,” the health minister said.

Tufton also pointed out that the Government has been spending millions on improving the system and care for pregnant mothers by equipping hospitals and adding more staff.