-Newborn was stabilised and transferred as part of effective referral system

Enmore Regional Hospital has hit back hard at Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed’s account of a newborn’s transfer, flatly rejecting the suggestion that the facility was unable to provide care because it lacked neonatal ventilators.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Hospital Administrator Dr. Badyel Bakhsh said Mohamed’s account created a false impression that Enmore was unequipped to treat the critically ill newborn.

The facts, he said, were markedly different.

“Enmore had neonatal ventilators. At the time, they were being used to care for other critically ill babies,” he said.

That distinction strikes at the centre of Mohamed’s criticism, which used the baby’s transfer from Bath Regional Hospital to Enmore and eventually to West Demerara Regional Hospital as evidence of a healthcare system in failure.

According to Enmore, the newborn was stabilised by its medical team before doctors identified available capacity elsewhere in the public health system and arranged the transfer.

The hospital argues that the episode demonstrates the referral system doing precisely what it is designed to do.

“No serious person should expect every hospital to have unlimited intensive-care capacity at every moment,” Bakhsh said.

Hospitals operate as part of a wider network, with patients referred or transferred when specialised equipment, intensive-care beds or other clinical resources are fully occupied. In this case, Enmore says that is exactly what happened.

Bakhsh noted that Mohamed attempted to take that clinical reality and recast it as a political failure.

“Deliberately presenting a successful clinical referral as evidence of systemic failure is not accountability; it is political theatre,” the release stated.

The hospital’s own performance figures also cut against any attempt to malign the facility.

Since opening in July 2025, Enmore has recorded 33,331 outpatient visits, 25,359 emergency visits, 4,337 admissions and 556 deliveries.

It has performed 125 Caesarean sections and 218 general surgeries, while conducting 51,583 laboratory tests, 19,073 X-rays, 2,329 CT scans and 6,035 ultrasounds.