The north’s ‘health minister’ Hakan Dincyurek was on Wednesday reported to the police over the death of a 20-year-old baby who was fed ethanol with her formula milk.
Dincyurek was reported to the police by former Turkish Cypriot chief negotiator for the Cyprus problem Kudret Ozersay, who highlighted that the family of the baby who died and the other six babies who were fed ethanol “were not informed about the scandal” and that “the incident was concealed for a long time”.
This, he said, is “a matter which requires judicial investigation”, as his refusal to inform the babies’ families may make him an “accessory” to the crime.
“We have been emphasising since the first day of this scandal that the fact that the families were not informed and that they learned about this incident from the press indicates that there may have been an effort to hide the crime and to cover the incident up,” he added.
He then made reference to comments made earlier that morning by Cyprus Turkish nurses’ and midwives’ union chairman Ibrahim Ozgocmen. He had told newspaper Yeni Duzen that nurses at northern Nicosia’s emergency hospital, where the incident occurred, had suggested informing the families, but that Dincyurek “did not find this appropriate”.
“It was said that when the babies’ situation deteriorated, the nurses wanted to inform the families, but the ministry did not allow it. This alone shows that [Dincyurek] himself must be investigated over this,” Ozersay said.
“[Dincyurek] should have resigned on the first day to pave the day for this police investigation, but at least now, after this report and [Ozgocmen’s] statement, he must resign.”
Ozgocmen had gone on the defensive in his interview on Wednesday morning, saying the baby’s death “is being presented as if it was done consciously, to the point at which nurses are being called murderers, but the same colleagues made a serious effort to make sure the other babies could cling on to their lives”.
“We need to make this distinction. This was a mistake which should not have occurred. There is no explanation for it. They have now been working to make up and fought for the babies’ safety,” he added.
He also rubbished Dincyurek’s claims on Sunday that he had not informed the babies’ families or the public for 30 hours after the baby died because the police would not allow him to do so, saying he had wanted to hide.
“It was [Dincyurek] himself who was told to call the families and let them come to the hospital to explain what happened, but he did not find this appropriate.”
Turning his attention to the incident itself, he said the health system is “like a chain”.
“If there is a mistake in one link, there can never be perfection across the chain. What were the storage conditions of this ethanol? Why does it come in plastic bottles from the pharmacy? Where is the administration? Where is the hospital’s chief physician? They do not care how the hospital is managed, they only care about their positions,” he said.
He then explained that under normal circumstances, nurses on the neonatal ward work shifts either between 2pm and 9pm or between 9pm and 7am, and that the kettle for babies’ milk is boiled at the end of each shift so that those coming to work have food ready to feed the babies.
He added that the nurses “may not have been able to smell” the ethanol due to the personal protective equipment they wear while on shift.
In addition, he said, the emergency hospital is currently short staffed and that as such on the neonatal ward, “there were an average of 20 or 22 patients and four nurses at a time looking after them.”
He added that some nurses were asked to work shifts lasting 14 or even 17 hours and working as many as 41 hours in any given two-day period.
He added that the hospital is being operated in “an environment of chaos” and that doctors “are being forced to do many things outside their job description.”
“The whole order is broken. The health ministry is being run like a party building.”
