Deyalsingh: Public hospitals are a loophole

At yesterday’s National Symposium on Midwifery at the University Inn and Conference, UWI, Deyalsingh said 2016 was the first time in years that Mt Hope Women’s Hospital recorded zero maternal deaths. He said he has been working on reducing maternal deaths and infant mortality since he assumed office.

He said when there was an incident at Mt Hope, the media labelled it as “Mt Hopeless.” “Do you know what damage you do to the psyche of the doctors who work there? “Let me tell everyone what we have to deal with. We have to deal with the rejects of the private sector. The private hospitals dump those mothers on public hospitals. You receive them without medical reports and we are supposed to provide care.

The private sector feels if they can’t handle this delivery, they will dump it on the public sector and I say that unapologetically.” Deyalsingh also announced that he would no longer be acting as director of women’s health as Dr Adesh Sirjusingh would officially be taking up that post on May 17.

Sirjusingh, he said, was chosen based on job description, qualifications and experience.

“He was the head of obstetrics and gynaecology in Sangre Grande (Hospital). He would be taking all the policy interventions and implementing them across all maternal hospitals and wards. He would ultimately be the judge on two statistical criteria, that is, getting maternal mortality down to first world country status, and the infant mortality should be down to 13 infant mortalities from 100,000 live births.