Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
A SHORTAGE of staff, other resources and critical care facilities for newborns is hampering the efforts of local medical staff to save the lives of premature babies.
Dr. Michelle Richards-Dawson, paediatrician at the Bustamante Hospital in St. Andrew, said recently that the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) has the only unit in Jamaica that offers specialised care for newborn babies. (There is a paediatric intensive care facility at the Bustamante Children's Hospital but it serves newborns and children with various illnesses.) She said each of the four health regions should have at least one neonatal intensive care unit.
"Based on our financial constraints and staff resources, we are limited regarding at what gestational age we can continue to save our babies," she added.
Using 2004 data, Dr. Richards-Dawson showed that 75 per cent of premature babies who weighed less than one kilogram died at Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH), compared to 30 per cent at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).
"This is probably because they (UHWI) have an intensive care facility," she told The Gleaner following her presentation, entitled, 'Pre-term infant: Viable Gestational Age', at the Medical Association of Jamaica's (MAJ's) 2005 symposium.
Dr. Richards-Dawson said that currently, Jamaican medical staff have the greatest chance to save a baby if the mother has been pregnant for seven or more months (26 weeks). This is unlike the United States where a baby can be saved at 24 weeks or six months.
Locally, an estimated 12 per cent of newborns are premature, meaning that these babies are born before their due dates. "Their bodies are not fully developed so they are prone to complications," Dr. Richards-Dawson said.
Local research is now being conducted to assess the impact of premature births, she said. The MAJ symposium is being held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston and ends on Sunday.
