Senior Reporter
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) remains mum on the status of a report into the deaths of seven babies at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Guardian Media sought an update on a report that a three-member team is due to complete following their in-person investigation.
When contacted, regional communications manager Lisa Bayley said she would pass Guardian Media’s questions on to the local authorised media liaison.
Bayley was contacted after calls to the local office bore little results.
Guardian Media visited PAHO’s office, which is located on the second floor of the Ministry of Health’s head office at Queen’s Park East yesterday, after calling the office hoping to speak with the country representative Dr Gabriel Vivas-Francesconi.
Officials there said he was out of the country and no one else could address media concerns.
On April 26, Prof Nalini Singh, a paediatrician from the Global Health and Epidemiology, George Washington University; Dr Grisel Rodriguez, a clinical microbiologist and head of Microbiology, Centro de Asistencia Medica Soriano in Uruguay and Dr Gillian Birchwood, a newborn intensive care specialist and head of the Neonatal Care Intensive Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, completed their investigation into the deaths of seven babies due to a bacterial infection at the NICU between April 4 and 9.
Dr Birchwood, when contacted, said she could not speak about the matter.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, when contacted on Thursday, advised Guardian Media to speak to PAHO for an update, saying when the report was submitted, the media would be informed.
After the deaths of the seven babies, attorneys at Freedom Law Chambers, led by Anand Ramlogan SC, sent pre-action protocol letters to the North West Regional Health Authority on behalf of their parents, accusing the NWRHA of negligence.
Since then, several other parents have stepped forward, claiming negligence in the deaths of their children due to an infection or improper care. The NWRHA has, to date, been served with 15 pre-action protocol letters accusing it of negligence in the deaths of 19 infants.
On Thursday, the NWRHA said it would not pay for the private medical experts to review the medical records of the infants. Attorneys representing the families said this was an attempt to derail the lawsuit as the independent review was compulsory for the lawsuit.