Editorial | Conduct independent probe of oxygen deaths

The operating assumption of Jamaica’s public officials is that, if they keep their heads low and tough out for long enough, their mistakes, missteps and questionable decisions and actions will soon blow over. Like with the dead-babies scandal of 2015. That matter, though, was mere months away from an election and was possibly priced into the Portia Simpson-Miller government’s defeat in February 2016.

Still, while the People’s National Party lost and its health minister, Fenton Ferguson, had earlier lost his job, there is a sense that no one was seriously held to account for the failures that led to the deaths of those 18 premature babies – neonates, as Dr Ferguson referred to them – who died from serratia and klebsiella bacteria-induced sepsis at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Neither is there any great clarity on why things got to where they reached.

That should not be allowed to be the case with respect to the shortage of oxygen at Jamaica’s public hospitals over a recent weekend, which may have directly caused, or contributed to, the deaths, according to this newspaper’s reporting, of at least eight COVID-19 patients. Which is why we support the call for a full and independent clinical review of all deaths in public hospitals in the days leading up to, during and immediately after August 26-29. This analysis should also look into hospital deaths during the days before, during and after the weekend of March 12-14, when there was also an oxygen shortage.

Separately, the contractual agreements of the health ministry and the regional health authorities for the procurement of oxygen, and the storage and logistical arrangements attendant thereto, should be independently reviewed and analysed and the public advised of their adequacy. It is not enough for the ministry and its supplier, Industrial Gases Limited (IGL), to just kiss and make up, leaving the public none the wiser on this matter. Sweeping things under the carpet, should that be attempted, ought not to be tolerated.

SANCTITY OF LIFE

Our insistence on accountability is not out of some perverse wish to embarrass or punish public officials. It rests on our respect for the sanctity of life and people’s obligation, especially the State and its institutions, to its preservation. Which is why this newspaper previously called for an explanation of the shortage of medical oxygen over the weekend of August 26-29, as Jamaica faced a surge of COVID-19 cases, during the epidemic’s so-called third wave. The health ministry suspended admittance to hospitals to all but emergency cases, as well as barred elective surgeries.

The oxygen shortage was particularly surprising, given that it had happened five months earlier. After the March crisis, health officials and IGL reported that oxygen storage facilities at hospitals were being upgraded and delivery systems hardened. Moreover, we expected government epidemiologists would have modelled the ebbs and flows of the COVID-19 epidemic and forecasted what would be the oxygen requirement in the various scenarios. In other words, all reasonable scenarios should have been planned and countervailing systems put in place. Five months is a long time.

Astonishingly, IGL initially said that its attempts to wrangle oxygen demand forecasts from the health ministry yielded nothing. It also suggested that its contractual arrangement for its products were loose. The company, however, seemingly walked back the weak forecasting bit in the face of the ministry’s claim to the contrary. These matters need to be clarified, including what IGL was told and when, its production capacity, and the company’s normal ratio of domestic output to imports to meet market demands.

HELD TO ACCOUNT

The independent probe, therefore, would shed light on how the actions, or failures, of policymakers, and how the decisions of a private monopoly supplier of an essential product may or may not have contributed to the deaths of Jamaicans. In the event that the failures of policymakers and firms led to deaths, we should know how many people died, who was responsible, how they should be held to account, and what compensation is owed to the victims of this misadventure. The counting of victims should not be limited only to patients who were suffering from COVID-19, but all who were compromised by the lack of oxygen, even if they did not die.

With respect to the deaths, the evaluation will require more than a cursory review of data by ministry officials and hospital administrators, but, in the absence of post-mortem results, then a fulsome review of patients’ files by qualified clinicians who have no axes to grind and stand firmly on their integrity. They should collaborate with, and their insights feed into, the efforts of the management and logistics experts focusing on the oxygen supply contracts.

The Al Miller-Holness summit

This newspaper looks forward to the full communiqué of last weekend’s summit between Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Al Miller, the evangelical pastor, irresponsible firearm holder, transporter of disguised fugitive, national honouree and, latterly, public sceptic of the efficacy of vaccinating against COVID-19.

Mr Miller characterised the move to inoculate children over 12 as experimenting with children, and falsely claimed that Jamaica’s effort in this regard was because of “intense international pressure, bound by some unwise treaties and conventions signed”. In the discipline of logic, Mr Miller’s utterances would be determined to be nonsense.

POSTED PICTURES

In a tweet on Saturday, Mr Holness posted pictures of himself and Miller sitting in plush chairs, presumably at the Office of the Prime Minister, and reported that they “discussed various topical issues, including his recent statement on vaccination”. He did not say whether Mr Miller had recanted, which good sense says he should, or apologised, which decency insists he owes to the Government and the Jamaican people. He should also repent and work to undo the damage his misinformation may have caused. Perhaps the communiqué will offer more.

We, however, would have preferred to have seen a tweet by the PM and the Opposition leader, Mark Golding, in a similar statesmen-like posture, occupying common ground on the efficacy of vaccines and of the value of Jamaicans being inoculated.