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| 'Poor management, delayed referral increasing maternal death count' | | Behind gleaming award ceremonies | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Jan 9: In the backstage of the glittering award functions wherein Jammu and Kashmir Government was given accolades for its 'remarkable achievements' in primary and tertiary healthcare, incidents of maternal deaths have exposed official apathy and professional negligence in the Department of Health.
It has come to fore that poor management and delayed referral of pregnancy related patients from peripheral hospitals is resulting in an increase in maternal deaths in the State. It also signifies failure of the Central flagship programme NRHM as the peripheral and district hospitals are not able to manage complicated pregnancies resulting in their deaths, despite infusion of crores of rupees into the system.
According to official sources, the much hyped National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scheme aimed at bringing down the rate of maternal deaths is failing due to misplaced priorities of the State's Health Department.
"NRHM is focusing on attracting people towards hospitals and crores of rupees are being spent on giving incentives and freebies to beneficiaries, but the real issue of upgrading infrastructure and capacity building of staff is nowhere in the scheme of things", the sources said.
Holding delayed referral of patients apart from improper management responsible for deaths of pregnant women, in an official directive the Director Health Services Kashmir has asked the field functionaries of the department to ensure early identification of high risk pregnancies apart from proper management to save precious lives of women. According to the contents of circular, the Director has held delayed referral tactics responsible for shock and cardiac arrest of pregnant women ultimately resulting into their deaths. This according to the official document has been revealed in the Maternal Mortality Meet of the Gynaecolgy / Obstetrics department of the GMC Srinagar held last month.
"It is hereby impressed upon all the CMOs/MS of all district/sub district hospitals to ensure basic resuscitation measures are taken for patients referred from primary and secondary centers as shock/hematomas and blood started along with another wide bore line and a paramedic accompanies the patient to the tertiary care hospital for specialized treatment", reads the circular.
Threatening the functionaries with strict action in case of deviation from directions, the Director has asked field officers to make ASHA workers responsible for identification of high risk pregnancies to enable timely referral to tertiary health institutions.
However, insiders believe the Government is focusing on promoting health facilities to attract more people rather than creating infrastructure for quality services.
"People in the State are highly health conscious. Unlike Bihar and Orissa the socio-economic indicators of the State are good and the Government should focus on providing quality services rather than attracting people through incentives and baits. There is no professional accountability in the department. We should first make services available and people will automatically come to hospitals", said a doctor at city's LD hospital wishing anonymity.
The Government is taking credit for health indicators which are good in the State due to better socio-economic conditions here and they should instead make services easily accessible at district and sub district hospitals to bring down referral of patients, he added. |
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