Sunday 14th September 2003
http://www.newsday.co.tt/

WHEN the death of babies becomes the subject of an unseemly finger-pointing row in the nation’s parliament, it is cause for us to mourn the depth of insensitivity to which our politics has fallen. The subject is one that should have provoked the concern and sympathy of the entire House and a determination to ensure that such a tragedy does not happen again. The death of 15 babies at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital last month is a truly sad event, particularly since some of them are believed to be victims of the common Enterobacter bacteria flourishing in unsanitary conditions at the neo-natal unit of the hospital. We would expect that the death of these infants and the apparent cause would have been the major concern for all, but, infortunately, Health Minister Colm Imbert and his UNC predecessor Dr Hamza Rafeeq saw fit to engage in an unbecoming political squabble in the House on Friday over the deaths of these babies.

Dr Rafeeq, apparently oblivious to the old adage that those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, provoked the indecorous exchange by accusing Minister Imbert of dishonesty over the Mt Hope deaths and of blaming everyone else but himself. “There seems to be a massive cover-up of this situation,” the ex-Minister said. “Thirteen babies are dying in August and eight in July.” He charged that a signal was sent to the Government as early as January but nothing was done. He said the government had the blood of babies on its hands and called for Imbert’s resignation, a commission of inquiry and compensation for the families of dead babies. Minister Imbert, of course, was all too happy to reply since he apparently anticipated such an attack and armed himself with the appropriate ammunition. Where 17 neonatal babies had died so far this year at Mt Hope, the Minister disclosed that a total of 62 neonatal deaths had occurred at the hospital in 2001 while Dr Rafeeq was Health Minister. “Sixty two! He presided over the deaths of 62 babies!” Imbert declared. In addition, there were 70 perinatal deaths. “Over 150 infants died in 2001 under his stewardship” the Minister retorted.

We suppose Mr Imbert had to defend himself under the circumstances but we must say we found this exchange between the present and former Health Ministers quite distasteful. The spectacle of two senior members from opposing parties accusing each other over the deaths of babies was certainly one of the less edifying passages of our parliament. Our concern is the apparent slackness which resulted in such unsanitary conditions at the neo-natal unit that the Enterobacter bacteria was able to multiply into an outbreak. Who is responsible for this? It is well established that these bacteria thrive in unsanitary conditions and that while they are not normally harmful to adults they can be deadly when infecting babies, particularly those born prematurely and having a poorly developed immune system. It is of paramount importance then to keep the neo-natal unit absolutely clean and sanitised, giving no opportunity to this bacterium to flourish. This necessity should have been well established at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital and the fact that such an outbreak could have occurred indicates, as Minister Imbert said, that “somebody was not doing their job.” That innocent babies died as a result of that slackness is terrible. After all the testing and investigations are done, we expect the Minister will do what is necessary to prevent such a tragic episode from recurring.