BY KIMBERLEY HIBBERT
ONE of Jamaica’s senior medical doctors yesterday declared that the dead babies scandal that shocked the country and led to the reassignment of Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson late last year was a nine-day wonder which the media used to launch unfair attacks on Dr Ferguson and other health sector workers.
According to Professor Horace Fletcher, dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, Mona, the press failed to investigate the tragedy, resulting in health care workers being judged and found guilty.
“What happened recently with the babies with infection, and I will not say [dying] from infection — these babies had infection and they died; something like 20 of them between Cornwall Regional, University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), and one from Bustamante [Hospital for Children] — the press had a grand time, and they really attacked us, especially at UHWI, we were under serious attack,” Professor Fletcher said.
He was speaking at the Jamaica Midwives’ Association and University of the West Indies School of Nursing (UWISON) public forum dubbed ‘Strategic Conversation: Transforming Midwifery to Meet the 2030 Agenda’ (Jamaica Observer)
