Minister says reason for mothers subjected to floor was due to an outbreak of hospital acquired infection

The shortage of beds at the Lautoka Hospital, highlighted on social media is not true.

Minister of Health and Medical Services, Rosy Akbar was referring to the bed shortage at the Lautoka Hospital Maternity Ward.

She said the matter had been addressed and the ministry was waiting for beds from overseas.

“Temporary beds have been provided so that mothers don’t have to sleep on the floor after giving birth,” Ms Akbar said.

“The reason for the mothers being subjected to the floor was actually due to the outbreak of hospital acquired infection.

“There was an infection outbreak in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)  Ward and that was the control measure put up by the management to transfer the mothers to another room,” she said.

“According to the staff and management, the mothers were advised of the situation and no one had a problem with relocating.”

The minister said shifting the mothers to another room was a control, a preventative strategy to keep the babies safe from an infection.

“When there is an infection outbreak, mostly the babies get affected. The mothers were shifted to this room where the pictures were taken.”

She said: “Shifting the mothers to another room is a short term solution and we will be able to shift the mothers to their respective rooms soon.

“As long as we have the infection under control, we should be able to go back to normalcy.”

Ms Akbar also responded to a newspaper article that reported that the mothers were scared to speak, for fear of being victimised.

“I can assure that no such thing would ever happen.

“We are here to provide a service. If people are not happy with our services, they can raise it up with us and we will look into the matter.”

The minister also confirmed that the ministry was working tirelessly at improving the quality of services provided.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

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