Deyalsingh: Steps taken to improve infant health care

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says steps have been taken to ensure the efficient operations of neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the public health sector.

He spoke in the Senate on January 28.

Deyalsingh said the ministry has implemented several measures to improve the management and operations of all NICUs throughout the public health sector.

He added this was done before the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) submitted its report on Port of Spain General Hospital's (PoSGH) NICU after seven babies died there last April.

Deyalsingh laid the report in the House of Representatives last June. The report said the deaths of the babies were due to poor infection prevention and control.

PAHO''s recommendations included breastfeeding within 24 hours of birth, better hand hygiene, active screening of bacteria cultures during outbreaks, better nurse-patient ratios, policies and procedures for cleaning and for high-level disinfection and external performance evaluation of the laboratory.

Deyalsingh said, "Many of these recommendations by PAHO were already in effect."

He said this included establishing the national neonatal committee and the national, sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health committee in 2017 and 2020 respectively.

Deyalsingh added both were created "before the PAHO report."

Other measures he mentioned included heightening infection protocol control during the covid19 pandemic.

"This led to the updating of related policies and guidelines in February 2022 with continuous training of staff across all RHAs (regional health authorities) in collaboration with PAHO."

Deyalsingh added with respect to PoSGH, the updated policies and guidelines were used to update the existing laboratory user manual and standard operating procedures. He said this was completed in 2023.

The North West RHA (NWRHA), Deyalsingh continued, does an annual internal quality assessment for laboratory services for quality improvement in its performance.

"This is completed by quarterly external assessment, recently conducted during the quarters April-June 2024 and July-September 2024.

"As a consequence, on April 17, 2024, the PoSGH laboratory was accredited by the Jamaican National Agency for Accreditation."

The PoSGH falls under the NWRHA.