By Binta Jaiteh
The Ministry of Health has been blamed for rise in maternal deaths – earlier the Minister denied reports of maternal deaths and linked it to excess loss of blood in women in labour.
Baba S Drammeh, director of Audit, Performance Unit made the blame during highlight of the performance and audit on emergency obstetric care in public health facilities report.
Speaking at a news conference, Mr Drammeh blamed the Ministry for its “failure to meet Maternal Mortality Rate targets in the country over the years.”
He said the report “revealed that maternal health in The Gambia is one of the key components of equitable provision of quality health care to the citizenry which has attracted both national and international attention.”
He added: “In light of the above, the government of The Gambia has put in place a National Reproductive, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) Policy 2017-2026 that would target all service delivery points of emergency obstetric care (EoOC) to ensure that they are fully equipped.”
According to him, EmOC comprises all the set of interventions that are used to treat complications that arise during pregnancy, childbirth and short after birth and as a result, the Audit was motivated by a number of factors.
He said in order to get comprehensive, relevant and reliable information on emergency obstetric care in The Gambia interviews were conducted with site visits as well as physical verification were made, key findings, functionality of EmOC centres and Midwifery workforce management were also done and discovered.
“The Gambia meets the acceptable level of the EmOC centres in number, but there are still gaps as to the distribution of centres such as LRR and NBR who have no facility providing full sets of comprehensive EmOC functions. The recommended number of functioning EmOC Ccentres as per the WHO recommendation is not met in the country likewise blood transfusion service is not performed in 29% of the designated EmOC centres due to the unavailability of blood bank facilities,’ he said.
“There was a geographic variation in the extent of staffing shortfalls, noting that all three general hospitals in the rural areas (Farafenni, Bansang and Bwiam) fell below the minimum staffing norms while the two in the urban area (Bundung and Serrekunda) have gone above it,” he continued.
In regards to the prevention of emergency cases, Mr. Drammeh said Anaemia testing was carried out in all the health facilities visited, except in Foday Kunda because such laboratory diagnostic services are largely unavailable in Reproductive Child Health trekking stations which subjects antenatal mothers to travel long distance for appointment