A three-member team from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) completed its investigation into the deaths of seven babies at the Port-of-Spain Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) yesterday.
In a media release, the Ministry of Health said the team: Prof Nalini Singh, a paediatrician from the Global Health and Epidemiology, George Washington University; Dr Grisel Rodriguez, a clinical microbiologist, Head of Microbiology, Centro de Asistencia Medica Soriano and Dr Gillian Birchwood, a newborn intensive care specialist and head of the Neonatal Care Intensive Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados, completed their investigation and met with Ministry officials.
The team also met with officials at the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) for a debriefing following the five-day investigative period.
“The public is advised that the PAHO review will continue, which will lead to the preparation of a final report being submitted to the Ministry of Health Pending the completion of PAHO’s internal process.”
The release said in the interim, the NWRHA will continue to work with PAHO to complete the independent review.
The investigation stems from the deaths of seven babies due to a bacterial infection at the Port-of-Spain NICU between April 4 and 9 according to the NWRHA.
Since the issue was raised, other parents outside of the cluster have stepped forward claiming that their infants also died because of negligence by staff at two other regional health authorities.
The NWRHA has advised that the other reports, while tragic, should be addressed independently from the cluster.