Last four months of 2010 upset maternal health drive - Dr Ramsammy

Last four months of 2010 upset maternal health drive – Dr Ramsammy

Jan 05, 2011 News

“A good job in the case of maternal and child health is not good enough. We have to do a perfect job,” said Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, as he commented on the spate of maternal deaths which obtained last year.
According to the Minister, the local Health Sector was well on its way to realising a maternal death rate of no more than eight per 10,000 as at the end of the first six months of last year, in keeping with the Millennium Development Goals for Maternal and Child Health.
However, the following four months completely defeated the efforts that were ambitiously engaged.
“In the first six months of last year we were on pace to achieve the best results in our history, but those four months destroyed that chance,” the Minister lamented.
He admitted that a number of measures were put in place but somehow these broke down, causing the public health sector to suffer a severe blow in the area of maternal and child health.
At the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) for instance, he explained that there should be about 120 midwives, but only 64 are within the entity’s employ. However, he noted that efforts have since been made to improve upon this significantly.
The Minister revealed that he has instructed that a doctor remain on the ward at certain hospitals, including the GPHC, the New Amsterdam Hospital, the Linden Hospital and the West Demerara Regional Hospital, at all times. The operations of these hospitals have in the past year been investigated for disturbing cases of maternal deaths.
“I have approved 11 more physicians to join the staff in the maternity department at the GPHC alone…I have insisted in the past, but it is not always followed, that certain maternity departments should always have a doctor in the ward. What happens is that we have doctors on call who are not in the ward too often…”
More than 150 high-risk and serious pregnancies had been referred to the GPHC last year according to the Health Minister, who said that doctors and nurses of the public health facility have worked tirelessly to gain the desired results.
It was just a few months ago, he said, that three high risk cases were seen by officials at the hospital. He added that the attention they received was instrumental in saving both mothers and babies’ lives.
However, despite the recent setback, Minister Ramsammy remains optimistic that Guyana will be able to meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals as established by the World Health Organisation for a maternal death rate of eight per 10,000 cases.
He speculated that Guyana will this year be on pace to reach this obligation, adding that, “it is always a difficult thing for people to understand when you have rough periods…In spite of the fact that we had four months that were extremely rough, anyone who had done an analysis over the years would know this was just an anomaly.”
Given the statistics that had become available by the last quarter of last year, a total of 20 maternal deaths were anticipated by the end of last year, according to Minister Ramsammy. He opined that persons cannot simply look at the rough months of last year and conclude how Guyana fared in the area of maternal and child health.
“If you look at Barbados, for example, they would have about 3,000 deliveries versus Guyana with 17,000 deliveries. So you can’t look at how many deaths occur, you have to look at the rate and we had 12 per 10,000.”
The minister asserted that last year’s rate was in fact higher than what was seen in both 2008 and 2009 which had about nine per 10,000 cases. The Ministry had then recorded an historic target having realised single digits for the first time, he noted.
However, the reverse trend obtained last year, he said, taking the public health sector back to the unsatisfactory figures of 2002 and 2003.
“I want to put this into perspective, that in spite of a rough four months, we have not returned to the 1990s when we had about 40 to 60 deaths. “That for me is no solace and it is no level of satisfaction, because we in fact should have gone under eight…”
Dr. Ramsammy could not recall at any other point of his 10 years as Health Minister facing challenges as were seen last year.

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