Technical challenges complicate ventilator access for newborns
... as overall working machines in public sector falls to 90
Published:Friday | June 28, 2024 | 12:13 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
It remains unclear how many ventilators are assigned to neonatal intensive care and paediatric units at public hospitals across the island following the death of a premature newborn two weeks ago and a subsequent health ministry internal audit of the machines.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie indicated that it is difficult to give a specific number, noting that of the available machines, the figure changes daily.
“These equipment have to be checked on a daily basis and may come down for whatever reason, which may be short term or it may take a little while to get them back up,” said Bisasor-McKenzie, who was responding to questions at Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
Her response follows the death of a baby boy at May Pen Hospital in Clarendon on June 11. The baby had to be manually ventilated because he did not have access to a ventilator.
On Wednesday, Television Jamaica reported that a mother was pleading for help to save her 11-month-old baby girl’s life as the infant was at May Pen Hospital for three weeks without getting access to the much-needed ventilator.
The ministry’s audit revealed that there is only one ventilator at the hospital, which is used to transport patients between departments or other hospitals.
Yesterday, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said the infant was transferred to the University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew for treatment. Tufton said the transfer was based on a need for more specialist care.
Bisasor-McKenzie further disclosed that there are currently 90 working ventilators in the public health system, down from 118 last week. Overall, 210 ventilators are registered in the system, and up to last week, 52 were obsolete.
“Depending on whether the ventilators are made specifically to a particular setting to deal with neonates or whether it is ventilators that can be used interchangeably among different age groups based on the connections and tubings that are there, these ventilators can move around … .
“So to say specifically that we have four for neonates versus specifically for adults, I could only say that, for example, in Victoria Jubilee Hospital, where those ventilators are specifically used only in the NICU,” the CMO said, referring to the neonatal intensive care unit.
A Gleaner source has indicated that there has been a challenge sourcing connections for ventilators that are to be used for babies.
The source, a medical doctor who specialises in obstetrics, said while the ventilator is generic, the connections for children are specific.
“They have been having great difficulty sourcing the disposables,” the source said.
However, on Wednesday, Tufton said “mischief” is at play as it relates to the ventilators and questions about the numbers.
He reiterated that a ventilator by itself served no purpose unless supported by a team.
He said pre-COVID, Jamaica’s public health system had 35 ventilators. He said the system now has “over 100 at least active”.
“So one could be very simplistic and say we have 200 to 300 per cent more ventilators than we had pre- versus post-COVID. That still does not explain its distribution, its usage, the technical requirements for them to be used,” said Tufton.
“Given that sometimes the public and those who question these issues are more interested in whether or not the system is being served with more as opposed to less, I just want to clarify that we have 300 per cent more ventilators than we had pre-COVID,” he added.