United National Congress MP Dr Lackram Bodoe has called for the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) probe report on the deaths of the babies at Port-of-Spain General Hospital’s NICU unit to be made public.
Bodoe also believes the hospital’s sterility aspect broke down.
Bodoe, a gynaecologist, made the comment at yesterday’s UNC media briefing in Chaguanas.
Bodoe said a Neonatal Intensive Care facility for very sick neonates requires a cot, ventilator, oxygen facilities and most importantly, specialised nurses and a team that can keep the unit sterile.
“It saddens me to say and think that it is the sterility aspect which broke down in the NICU (at PoS General Hospital), so the Health Minister should really be focusing on what happened to the NICU at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital,” he said.
Bodoe also called on the media to investigate whether a boiler at the San Fernando General Hospital had allegedly been non-functional since May 2023. He noted boilers produce the steam which is used for sterilisation of linen and other items.
“Therefore, one has to wonder if this boiler—and because of that, linen, equipment had to be moved around to other facilities, St James, Mt Hope and so on—whether that could have provided a source of contamination. But I’ll say no more on that,” Bodoe added.
He said he was sure this was in the public domain and also that the members of the PAHO team probing the deaths of the babies, “would take all the steps necessary to produce a report that will be useful and for us to move forward in terms of providing much-needed care to the most vulnerable—the babies in the first 28 days of life.”
Bodoe said, “I look forward to their report—and we on this side call on the Government to make the report public. For this report to be useful not only for the public and parents but for the progress of neonatal care in T&T, it has to be a proper report.
“In other words, the probe committee must have access to all the facts and all events that occurred and I call on the Government to ensure that all the resources are provided to this committee.”
Bodoe said he hoped that it was not true that evidence is being derailed even before the probe begins.
“I hope it’s not true the Blood Bank is being sterilised and that equipment/facilities which could have been the source of infection is being moved away. If we are to get a true result, all of the facts must come to this committee for us to move forward.”