UNC: PNM ‘negligence’ killed babies in 2003

THE OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) condemned the deaths of infants at the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital in 2003 as a straight case of “criminal negligence on the part of an uncaring PNM administration.” In its New Year message yesterday, the UNC charged: “Recently, this country has been experiencing an excessively high rate of infant mortality, in many cases due to criminal negligence on the part of an uncaring PNM administration. The existing health care system is woefully lacking and in some instances down right dehumanising.” On Monday, Health Minister John Rahael visited possible sites at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex where the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital could be relocated. Rahael said the hospital will not be moved from its present location unless he is satisfied that all the medical systems, protocols and management systems are first put in place.

At a media briefing at the Health Ministry’s Port-of-Spain office last Tuesday, the contents of a report filed by Dr Petronella Manning Alleyne on the recent deaths of infants at the Hospital’s neonatal unit were disclosed. Rahael said “action has been taken on some recommendations” made by that report such as the purchasing of new incubators for the neonatal unit. A Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) report about the status of neonatal units at TT’s major hospitals, the country’s perinatal and infant mortality rates suggested that the Health Ministry decide whether it should either refurbish the Mt Hope Women’s Hospital or shut it down and the decision be made once a proper technical analysis is done.

The UNC claimed that overall for 2003, the PNM’s governance of Trinidad and Tobago was “an unmitigated disaster at all levels.” The Opposition said in 2004, the PNM must utilise the vast array of human and natural resources in the country to bring proper governance to TT. The UNC urged the PNM to ensure that the TT’s access to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) does not impact negatively on the national economy, the education system is made relevant “to the newly emerging techno-scientific era,” a holistic agricultural policy and the needs of the poor, aged and physically challenged are looked after. The UNC also called on the PNM to “bring an immediate end to its discriminatory and vindictive practices and to begin the process of sweeping constitutional reform immediately if this country is to avoid further disintegration and rupture in its social fibre.”