By: Binta Jaiteh
The Chairperson of Parliament Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC), Hon Alagie S. Darboe, has raised eyebrows over the increase in the maternal mortality rate in FarafenniGeneral Hospital between 2015 and 2017.
Reacting to the reports of the hospital’s maternal rate, Hon Darboe said the hospital recorded an increase in maternal death by 33.3% from 8 in 2015, to 12 in 2017. There has been an increase in maternal mortality from 2015 to 2017. He asked the management to explain the reasons for the drastic increment.
From 2018 to 2019, he said, the same issue and mentioned that 66.6% declined from 15 in 2018, which means the increment continues from 2015 and steadily increased from 5, to 12, to 15, and then in 2019 it declined to 5, he noted.
Mr. Kebba Manneh, the CEO of Farafenni Hospital disclosed that one major factor could be the delay in referring to the hospital and the delay in responding to the patients at the level of the hospital and the nature of referring if the hospital can’t handle the case.
He also, said decision-making from home is another obstacle, but at this particular time, he said he is not sure what could be the cause but quickly added that when a death occurs – maternal death, there is always an immediate review of the case to find out the cause. “We audit it to know the problem and the lapse to make sure it is addressed to avoid recurrence,” he informed the assembly.
If the CEO cannot specifically explain the reason as to what is responsible for the increase from 2015 to 2018, the Hon requested him to explain the reason giving his own view on what could be responsible for the declined rate from 15 to 5 in 2019.
Therefore, the CEO explained that this issue was way back and that he could not confirm that “but as I said the issue could be several factors responsible, and also the hospital may lack the requisite manpower to handle some of these cases. This especially, a gynecologist available because if you don’t have the requisite manpower most of the time you will be faced with these challenges.”
Chairperson Darboe reiterated the inconsistency in 2020 and 2022 of the hospital handling the issue of maternal mortality while he said they would be expecting a report because the hospital should be able to establish a medical report as to the cause of that mortality.
However, the committee tasked the hospital to conduct research and provide written evidence so that the minister would know they had facts regarding this issue.