By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The Health Sister II Kenema District Health Management Team (DHMT), Janet Tenneh Sankoh has told Politico that there is a worrisome situation over maternal deaths in the district.
She explained that at the Under Five Clinic, 30 maternal mortality deaths were recorded from January to May this year. “This rate of maternal deaths is not really good for Kenema district’’, she stated.
She said from their findings as DHMT, some of the root causes of the increase in maternal death is late referrals of cases by staff at other health units even though they have been advised to send critical cases that are beyond their control to the government hospital in Kenema. She also explained that the ambulance service is fraught with issues like lack of fuel or mechanical problems, when needed sometimes.
She viewed the attitude of some nurses who could be found playing with their phones instead of attending to patients, especially emergency cases, as appalling.
The district health sister added that the poor road network in certain communities is also another challenge and by the time the ambulance arrived the patient would have lost their lives. Some had to use tricycle (kekeh) to get pregnant women due for labour, to the hospital.
“Some pregnant women do die on the road but I do go to those communities to find out the history of those cases,’’ the nurse pointed out.
She said the DHMT conducts investigations on maternal deaths and the role of midwifery in addressing cases and do share some of their findings with the community and provide recommendations which she claimed were in some cases, not followed.
Sister Sankoh said as part of the problem, some pregnant women do not go for normal clinical checkup and only do so once or twice. She pointed out that the DHMT holds maternal review meetings with stakeholders and partners that complement the effort of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in mitigating some of the causes of maternal deaths.
She stated that pregnant women between the ages 16 - 35 year are mostly victims of maternal deaths. Meanwhile a civil society activist attached to the DHMT that attends the health sectorial meeting, Fallah Albert Bockarie confirmed to Politico problems associated with the management of the ambulance system and suggested that government takes full control of management of the ambulance services.
Bockarie maintained that there is a strong allegation against the nurses attached to the maternity that they are demanding money from pregnant women and their relatives when they are taken to the government hospital and said from their investigation as civil society, there is poor supervision there, as the matron in charge of the hospital does not stay in Kenema and is always out, with no proper monitoring at the government hospital.
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