PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The North West Regional Well being Authority (NWRHA) has dismissed claims that the healthcare system in Trinidad and Tobago has collapsed amid “hypothesis and misinformation” surrounding the deaths of new child infants within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Port of Spain Normal Hospital.
NWRHA, in a press release on Saturday, mentioned the collapse claims had been “unlucky and irresponsible.”
“The nation’s healthcare services are absolutely useful, together with the NICU on the Port of Spain Normal Hospital and the hundreds of healthcare professionals who exit to work night time and day to look after the nation’s sick, stay devoted {and professional} in finishing up their duties,” it mentioned.
The NWRHA’s feedback come amid continued media protection of the deaths of seven infants on the NICU between April 2 and 9 from late-onset neonatal sepsis. The Pan American Well being Group (PAHO) can be doing an unbiased investigation into the infants’ deaths.
The infants’ dad and mom, within the meantime, have retained authorized counsel, and final week, a pre-action protocol letter was despatched to the NWRHA by attorneys from Freedom Regulation Chambers forward of a proposed class motion medical negligence lawsuit.
Since then, a number of different moms have come ahead about dropping infants who had been in NICU, although not inside the April 2 to 9 interval.
In its assertion, the NWRHA mentioned that due to the authorized motion being taken, it was not able to right a lot “hypothesis and misinformation put into the general public area.”
“This however, we expect it necessary to share some indeniable details, if just for basic information and to guarantee our present and future affected person inhabitants. There was no collapse or breakdown of the healthcare system in Trinidad and Tobago,” it mentioned.
It confused that the basis reason behind the toddler deaths continues to be to be decided and can be.
“Of equal significance is discovering out how and why the deaths occurred and the steps mandatory to forestall a recurrence,” the NWRHA mentioned. “That is the topic of the investigation that PAHO is conducting on the request of the Ministry of Well being alongside the NWHRA’s inside investigation.”
The top of the NWRHA’s An infection Prevention Management Unit has been despatched on administrative depart pending the end result of the probes.
The NWHRA, which mentioned its NIC accepts probably the most minor and sickest infants from all of the Regional Well being Authorities within the twin-island republic, reported that in 2023, of the 403 infants – 19 % of all reside births that 12 months – admitted, 19 died. That resulted in a neonatal mortality charge of 8 per 1,000 reside births.
It acknowledged that the earlier 12 months, that charge was 6.2 per 1,000 reside births however famous that “there have been fewer congenital anomalies that 12 months.”
Utilizing figures from a 2021 World Financial institution report, the NWRHA identified that the speed in Barbados was the identical because the 2023 charge in Trinidad. It cited different Caribbean nations: Jamaica, 10 per 1,000 reside births; Suriname, 11 per 1,000 reside births; and Guyana, 17 per 1,000.
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