Opposition leader Andrew Holness has joined those calling for the head of Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson over the death of 18 babies at two of the country's hospitals as a result of bacterial infection.

He said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller should stop protecting Ferguson and fire him.

A statement from Holness' office said that he had consultations with former ministers of health Rudyard Spencer and Dr Ken Baugh as well as current spokesperson Marlene Malahoo Forte about the current situation in the health system. He came to the conclusion that "this crisis is due to the irresponsibility of the minister and the prime minister".

Holness expressed condolences to the parents who lost their babies at the University Hospital of the West Indies and the Cornwall Regional Hospital,.

"When 18 babies die of a mysterious illness and the minister of health is comfortable in saying that he has only just learnt of it, ... when the nation doesn't even trust what the minister says since his chik-V cover-up, and when we see the deterioration of our health services to a point which we have never seen before in the history of Jamaica, how can the prime minister not act?"