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Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr. Alfred Dawes and Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton
Opposition Spokesperson on Health and Wellness Dr. Alfred Dawes says the deaths of 24 newborns this month at Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) point to a deeper systemic failure in the care of newborns at the facility.
Dr. Dawes is demanding that Health and Wellness Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton release the full mortality rate for VJH from 2020 to present.
He is suggesting that deficiencies at the maternity hospital could have compromised the care of the babies.
Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, has said the increase in the number of newborn deaths is not linked to an outbreak of infection at the hospital.
Dr. Bisasor-McKenzie said preliminary data collection showed that the majority of the affected babies were born prematurely with significant factors that could have predisposed them to serious illnesses.
But Dr. Dawes believes this explanation is unacceptable.
"Prematurity is a medical condition not a cause of death. Victoria Jubilee continues to suffer from overcrowding, understaffing and outdated infrastructure. There is a chronic lack of essential resources including cooling blankets, ventilators and proper parenteral nutrition for neonates. These deficiencies, combined with inadequate staffing, compromise the hospital's ability to manage high risk pregnancies and provide life-saving neonatal care," he asserted.
The opposition spokesman said reports indicate that there were 229 neonatal deaths at the hospital between October 2023 and June 2025.
He has called for Dr. Tufton to confirm the accuracy of these figures.
Dr. Dawes said the spike in neonatal deaths and high maternity mortality rate reflect a public health system in crisis.
"Dr. Tufton must answer the following: How many neonatal deaths have occurred at VJH annually over the past five years? What has been done to improve these outcomes? What budget allocation was made to neonatal care? Was there a breakdown in infection control? And importantly, why was the public not informed sooner? Jamaicans deserve transparency and accountability. These were not statistics. These were children," he contended.
The Ministry of Health has said the established surge plan was activated at Victoria Jubilee Hospital and all steps were taken to appropriately care for the patients.
It said the findings of the investigation into the deaths of the babies will guide any required interventions and an update will be provided to the public once the process is complete.
The ministry said it opted not to issue a national advisory on the situation at VJH as it faced the risk of causing panic among pregnant women scheduled to give birth there.
Speaking Friday on Radio Jamaica's Hotline, Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton said the approach is to individually contact high-risk patients. He added that what is needed is increased public education to impress upon expectant mothers the importance of regular prenatal checks.
"The idea of of singling out an entity - granted it's the largest one, so it treats more than any other - for an issue that has national concerns where we have to mobilise nationally, could be a double-edged sword because it could also make people not want to go to those entities. I mean, there are pros and cons to that kind of targeted approach.
"What is, I think, more important is that the system picks up these kind of surges or outlier events, it deals with it as quickly as possible, and to the extent that mothers are on a list to be treated, they can directly intervene and reach out to those mothers. To make it a national concern around a single entity, comes also with many disadvantages," the minster reasoned.