HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) has agreed to pay for independent counselling being sought by the parents of babies who died in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH).
He made this comment while responding to a question from Princes Town MP Barry Padarath in the House of Representatives on April 26.
Before Deyalsingh answered the question, Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George admonished Padarath for repeating Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar's recent description of Deyalsingh as "the minister of death."
She told Padarath to "withdraw that (remark) and read the question as posed."
Padarath complied.
Persad-Bissessar ascribed this title to Deyalsingh at a news conference in Port of Spain on April 19 concerning the babies' deaths.
On April 26, Deyalsingh said, "On the occurrence of the events, very early the NWRHA, through their social workers' department, were indeed in contact with the parents of the affected babies."
He reiterated his condolences to the parents.
Deyalsingh said the authority's social workers reached out to the parents to "provide the necessary support and counselling."
This, he continued, did not happen due to pre-action protocol letters being issued by Freedom Law Chambers to the NWRHA on behalf of the parents of 16 babies who died at the PoSGH's NICU.
Deyalsingh told MPs these letters "asked the NWRHA to have no contact with the parents."
He said, "What the letter also asked was for the NWRHA to agree to pay for independent counselling and the NWRHA has agreed to that."
Padarath claimed that the babies' parents sought independent counselling because they had expressed "no confidence in the public-health system and have opted to private counselling based on that."
Deyalsingh said, "I want to stand behind every single health-care worker in Trinidad and Tobago."
Government MPs thumped their desks in support of his statement.
He added, "It is this kind of dialogue that unfortunately, the UNC is trying to tarnish the reputation of every single health worker. And you know what? They are smarter than that, I stand behind them."
Deyalsingh reiterated that the pre-action protocol letters issued to the NWRHA by Freedom Law Chambers forbid the authority to make direct contact with the parents and asked it to pay for independent counselling that the parents were seeking and the NWRHA is doing that.
In response to inaudible comments made to him by opposition MPs, Deyalsingh said, "In the face of all these unwarranted attacks. You can attack me. That's fine. But the system continues to function. We had one terrible incident in one ward and we continue to provide services to thousands of people across 109 health centres, 13 hospitals on a daily basis to the satisfaction of those patients."
Annisette-George dismissed a claim from Padarath that the NWRHA was tampering with or delaying the release of the babies' medical records to their parents as being out of order.
