In one year… GPHC records 119 neonatal deaths –Lawrence reveals

Jul 13, 2018 News

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has recorded 119 neonatal deaths for the period June 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. This was revealed by Minister of Health, Volda Lawrence, during a parliamentary session yesterday.
She was at the time responding to questions from Opposition Member, Dr. Vindya Persaud, who expressed concern over the number of deaths for the aforementioned period.
During her questions which were posed without notice, the Parliamentarian asked the Minister to speak to the causes for the high mortality rate at the GPHC. Dr. Persaud also asked Lawrence to state what measures were being taken to reduce the deaths at the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). She also wanted the politician to tell the National Assembly, the number of deaths at the NICU, if there were any investigations and if the cleanliness of the Unit had any link to the deaths.
The Minister of Health was quick to note that during the one year period in question; there was no increase in neonatal deaths. She said that the NICU had 1155 admissions and 10.3 percent represented deaths.
Dr. Persaud shouted across the room that “this is too high.” But Lawrence quickly responded, saying that even one neonatal death is “too high.”
The Health Minister said that over the years, the figures for neonatal deaths have been on the decline but provided no statistics to the House to prove her point in this regard. Be that as it may, the Minister said that works continue in an effort to ensure that neonatal deaths are brought down to zero.
As it relates to investigations, Lawrence said that every neonatal death is reported and reviewed by the Child Mortality Committee which draws representatives from the government and the private sector.
She stressed that if a report shows any discrepancies, then investigates are done. For the period in question, Lawrence said that no special investigation was warranted. Further to this, Lawrence made it clear that poor sterility and infrequent testing of the facility was not responsible for the deaths during the period in question.
The Minister said, “GPHC employs several practices to ensure the safety of neonatals. The NICU is thoroughly cleaned and then sterility checks are done after cleaning. Blood culture results are also reviewed.
“Once that is done, then there is a review of all cleaning protocols and hygiene compliance audits are done for quality improvements. The NICU is a clean environment. Sterility checks are only warranted after a general cleaning and decontamination…”
That said, Dr. Persaud turned her attention to the number of neonatal deaths for this year. She pointed out that from January to April, there were 32 deaths. The Opposition Member asked Lawrence to state how high the figures have to be in order to warrant a full scale investigation into the direct causes.
Volda agreed that the figures presented by Dr. Persaud are accurate but reminded that even in those cases; no discrepancies were found by the Mortality Committee. Dr. Persaud was not satisfied with this response, stating that 35 neonatal deaths in four months is alarming. She also pushed for Lawrence to say what were the causes of the deaths for the year but Lawrence provided none at that time.
Dr. Persaud had other pressing questions on the subject but was told to put them in writing. The Health Minister assured that answers would be provided soon.

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In one year… GPHC records 119 neonatal deaths –Lawrence reveals

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