President of the Trinidad and Tobago National Nursing Association Idi Stuart, met with the Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh on Tuesday to discuss a number of issues that continue to create havoc in the health sector.
00:00Mr Stewart said he and his association are concerned about shortages in the nursing pool,
00:06working conditions and the establishment of the Health Sector Accreditation Council.
00:11He said the primary objective of the meeting with the Health Minister was to discuss the importance of the Health Sector Accreditation Authority Bill
00:19and for it to be brought back for debate in Parliament and passed.
00:23And significant work has been done on this bill by both sides of government, both opposition and government,
00:32when they were in government at the point in time.
00:35And we really found it strange that no progress has been made since 2010.
00:41According to Stewart, we must accept that human beings are prone to errors,
00:46and historically, much lives and losses have occurred due to human error in healthcare.
00:52He referenced some of the shortcomings that were pointed out in PAHO's report
00:56following the deaths of the babies at the Port of Spain General Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit in April of this year.
01:03Some of those problems, appropriate bed spacing, policies and procedures were inadequate.
01:10Policies and procedures for the operating theatre were not done.
01:17Active surveillance was not done. External performance evaluation was not performed.
01:22And the list of issues was long.
01:25The reason why this was allowed to happen at Port of Spain General Hospital and NICU and all other facilities throughout Trinidad and Tobago
01:34is that you do not have this external body to monitor and regulate.
01:38Stewart said that there is a lack of appropriate accreditation standards for healthcare institutions both in the private and public sector
01:46and that there is also a lack of standard operating procedures within our healthcare systems at all levels,
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