Bodoe: Blood products at SFGH affected by outage at lab

Senior Reporter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The South Western Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) is probing the cause of a power outage at the San Fernando General Hospital’s laboratory on Wednesday.

The issue was raised by Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe during the Budget debate in Parliament yesterday, where he claimed critical blood products were compromised as a result of the incident.

“Do you know what happened Madam Speaker? As a result, blood products have been compromised and no blood products can be provided for elective cases at this time. Madame Speaker, blood is currently being sourced nationally for emergencies only. I raise this because the issue of generators has been raised before at San Fernando and Mt Hope,” he said.

Bodoe said the incident, which can affect temperature fluctuation in storage units where blood products are kept, was made worse when the backup generator failed to kick in.

“This is just one issue. There are other issues at the SWRHA. We have the lack of ambulances, a lot of them being non-functional because of the breakdown and so on,” he said.

Bodoe also challenged the accuracy of reports that for the year so far, there have been five maternal deaths at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. He said a committee to probe these deaths is needed.

He said: “I invite the Minister of Health and the Director of Women’s Health to look at forming this national committee for confidential inquiry in maternal mortality, so whatever happens in the future, that learning can be shared. It is not meant to point fingers, it is really meant to create a situation where you can have a national audit.”

Noting World Mental Health Day was observed yesterday, Bodoe said mental health remained the elephant in the room.

“It is something that is underdiagnosed. We don’t have the figures on the extent of mental health disease in the population,” said Bodoe, who also asked about the status of the Mental Health Policy 2019-2029.

The post Bodoe: Blood products at SFGH affected by outage at lab first appeared on CNC3.