Five of the main directors of the Diez de Octubre Gynecology and Obstetric Hospital in Havana were separated from their duties due to the death of 10 premature and low-weight babies. According to the Ministry of Health, also six other officials were “removed from their position, two changed jobs and another nine received reprimands,” without specifying what type.
The decision was made after an official note was published on January 16, initially mentioning the death of only eight premature and low-weight babies – four of them presumably with sepsis – and forcing the health authorities to create a National Commission. of Health to investigate the causes of death.
This event focused on the state of Cuban public health, one of the pillars of the socialist revolution of 1959. Given the facts, the Ministry of Health recognized an increase in complications in newborns since “the second half of December”, and assured that after the deaths of the newborns “measures have been adopted to deal” with the situation.
This Monday, the result of the Commission’s investigation was announced, which confirmed the death of 10 babies and “the presence of an outbreak of infection associated with health care in the neonatal intensive care room” of the hospital known as ” Daughters of Galicia”, its traditional name.
According to the report, “six of the ten babies who died — two of them after the fact was reported last january 16— had signs of sepsis with positive blood cultures for the germ gram negative“. The others, it was stated, “died due to other causes caused by their delicate state of health.”
The data provided only confirmed the population’s complaint about the lack of sterilization in hospitals and the shortage of medicines. “The outbreak was linked to violations of hygienic-sanitary measures,” the Commission highlighted.
The data provided only confirmed the population’s complaint about the lack of sterilization in hospitals and the shortage of medicines.
The investigation also highlighted the “problems of securing resources that the center presented at that time and implied affectations in the quality of the patient care processes.”
The last week of January, in an analysis by the Cuban economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago, published in the independent media The touchit was evidenced that the Government has cut social spending since 2007 to adjust it to its economic capacity.
According to the 2020 statistical yearbook of the Ministry of Health – the latest available – Cuba has more than 90 doctors for every 10,000 inhabitants, practically triple the number recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Mesa-Lago explained, in a telephone conversation with EFE, that around half of family doctors are abroad. The export of professional services, especially healthcare, is Cuba’s main source of foreign currency, above tourism and remittances. He also stressed that the number of hospitals decreased between 2008 and 2021 by 32%, according to official figures. “It is clear that there has been considerable deterioration in the health system,” she concludes.
The Ministry of Health indicated that after the control measures adopted after these deaths, “the infectious outbreak was concluded on January 25”, with which they plan to “resolve the deficiencies identified and minimize the risks of infections related to health care, in all the facilities” of the Island.
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