The North West Regional Health Authority is prioritising investigations into the death of several babies of neonatal sepsis (an infection caused by bacteria) while they were warded at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Port of Spain General Hospital and it .
This assurance has come from the Attorneys for the NWRHA.
The Attorneys state that the Authority also hopes to avoid “unnecessary expensive litigation.”
The NWRHA’s position was set out by its attorney Alana Bissessar of the firm Pollonais, Blanc, de la Bastide and Jacelon, in a letter on April 16, to attorneys for the babies’ families.
She said the NWRHA, as a responsible public health provider, has been and remains extremely concerned about this situation, deeply saddened by the deaths and is cognisant of the emotional effect on all involved. She said the authority has prioritised the matter and was committed to expeditiously investigating what happened.
She disclosed since this unfortunate incident occurred our client has been engaging in a compassionate, timely, fair and reasonable manner with the parents of these babies.”
On April 16, Bissessar wrote to attorneys for the seven families who have already signalled their intention “to file an unprecedented class action claim for medical negligence based on the mass death of seven innocent babies.”