The recent tragic deaths of babies at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital continue to draw the public’s attention and criticism
And rightly so, given the fact that more and more parents are coming out of the woodwork to reveal horror stories of deaths and other related issues within the unit.
Furthermore, while the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) has been separating the recent deaths of seven babies in early April from some of the other complaints—now numbering 18, it is safe to say the public will not be convinced all is well at the healthcare institution until there is a definitive conclusion to this matter.
This is why the work of the three-member Pan American Health Organization team now here to conduct an independent probe into the matter is so important to the efforts of the NWRHA to re-establish public confidence, not only in neonatal care, but overall public healthcare provided by state institutions.
Having said that, the NWRHA has already started off on the wrong foot by deliberately withholding the identities of the PAHO team members who are presently on the ground conducting the probe.
During Monday’s conference announcing the team’s arrival, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh refused to share these details under the guise that he was taking a hands-off approach to the probe. NWRHA CEO Anthony Blake, meanwhile, outrightly refused to reveal the specialists involved when contacted by the media.
Citizens are already apprehensive about such state-sanctioned exercises, given that even commissions of enquiry, the biggest platforms available for such interrogation, also bring little by way of holding to account individuals who may be negligent or guilty of malfeasance.
We are thus perplexed that the NWRHA would feel withholding the identities of the PAHO team will help its cause. Indeed, verification of the specialists’ expertise will only help the NWRHA, and by extension Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley himself, to validate the commitment to leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of the problems within the PoSGH NICU.
In fact, the PAHO team’s findings may very well help to provide not only the NWRHA but other regional authorities with a template for better neonatal care, hence the importance of ensuring that these individuals are indeed fit for the purpose of this exercise.
Transparency in the current PAHO probe is thus critical. While it is a given the NWRHA would want to keep certain details of the final report close to its chest, the public must be kept abreast of what is happening.
The real questions then are will the PAHO team get full cooperation from NWRHA officials involved in this fiasco; will the parents involved get a chance to give their stories to the team; will the report be made public and will those who may be culpable in the incidents be held to account?
Undoubtedly, the PAHO specialist team will also provide recommendations for improvement, given the fact that something is now drastically wrong at the PoSGH NICU, but will the Government be committed to making the drastic changes necessary?
Nonetheless, we hope that by the end of the exercise, citizens will be able to rest assured that T&T will never have another situation of this nature again.