By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The Focal person for maternal health in Kenema, Mabel Musu Farma has told Politico that the ambulances donated to the hospital have prevented some more maternal and infant deaths in the district.
“With the advent of the ambulance service there is much improvement in maternal deaths in Kenema district because before the ambulance service we used to get maternal deaths up to sixty cases in a year” she said.
“For 2017, sixty cases were recoded, 2018, fifty-four cases, and in 2019, fifty-three cases of maternal deaths were recorded” Farma went on.
Health officials say by 2017, Kenema had only three ambulances to transport emergency cases. In December 2018, the district received six ambulances from the National Emergency Medical Service (NEMS) program in gthe Ministry of Health to facilitate emergency cases in the district.
More ambulances were distributed to other districts in the country under the NEMS program.
Farma said that despite the progress, they still had other lingering challenges in the district to tackle maternal mortality even if she praised the current situation.
“Most people used hammock to take their patients to the hospital or health centres. Another factor was home delivery by TBA’s (Traditional Birth Attendants). Though it has reduced some people are still doing home delivery and very soon we will embark on chiefdom engagement to talk to paramount chiefs to stop such act”, she said.
The six ambulances have been strategically located across the district, so it serves as many communities as possible.
Omaru Jagitay, the district coordinator of the ambulances said Kenema district had six ambulances with five in full operation in strategic locations within the district while one was on standby “in the case of a breakdown of any one in the field which can be easily replaced until the one is serviced.”
Jagitay said the ambulances were in Tongoh Fields, Blama Lower Bambara, Small Bo, Boajibu Simbaru and in Joru. “Each ambulance can service multiple communities, including one in the hospital that services the city of Kenema.”
Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world with 1,165 deaths out of every 100,000 births. The introduction of the NEMS service is aimed at increasing mobility for pregnant women.
Farma says a major challenge is to get enough blood in the Government hospital’s blood bank, as standby for emergency cases.
“There is need for blood, it’s difficult and the community engagement will also target people to donate blood willingly so, it can be kept in the blood bank in case of any emergency operations” she added.
“Blood donation by people is a big challenge facing maternal health” she concluded.
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