PNP supporters take protest against Tufton to health ministry office

About 100 supporters of the People's National Party (PNP) on Wednesday protested outside the offices of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, in New Kingston, over the deaths of 13 babies at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, in Kingston, from a bacterial infection.

The protestors were continuing calls for the resignation of Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton. 

However, Tufton and other top health officials were not inside the offices, but were instead at the AC Marriott Hotel for the National Research Conference.  

Among those leading the protestors was Mark Golding, Opposition Leader and President of the PNP.

In his address to the protestors, he said Tufton should resign or be removed from the health portfolio.

"Not only did this outbreak of an infection, which led to the [deaths of] babies occur under his watch again, but, armed with that information, he decided to keep it to himself and as a result of that, parents who could have made a decision to go to another facility to have their baby, went to the Victoria Jubilee, and some of them got infected, mothers and the babies, and died, and he must be held accountable for that," Golding said.

"That was the wrong decision, because it cost lives," he said. 

- Ainsworth Morris

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