Maternal mortality rates down

Maternal mortality rates are down, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said as he visited Christmas Day babies born at Port of Spain General and the Mt Hope Maternity hospitals. Five babies were born at Port of Spain and Mt Hope respectively as Christmas Day was ushered in.

Two babies were born at Port of Spain at 1.54 am and 3.45 am to mothers Diana Mawle (a baby boy) and Nnakeda Kenedy (also a baby boy), respectively. A healthy baby girl was born to Jelyssa Hall at Mt Hope Maternity Hospital at 12.13 am and this birth is recorded as the first Christmas Day baby born in the country.

Other births at Mt Hope were baby boys to mothers Reneisha La Croix and Cindy Llewellyn, born at 12.47 am and 2. 18 am, respectively.The mothers beamed, some of them first timers, as the staff and Minister Deyalsingh presented them with hampers filled with pampers and nursing pads among other necessities.

Some of the mothers had no planned names for their babies as Deyalsingh jokingly asked them to name the babies after him, Terrence if a boy and Terri, if a girl. Ryan Greig, the sole father to first time mother Cindy Llewellyn’s baby boy , there at the time when the media and minister visited, said he planned to name his son, Raylon Greig.

MORTALITIES DOWN

Donning a Santa hat and red shirt, Deyalsingh brought good tidings not only to the mothers but TT as he said, “The best give we can give to mothers is a safe delivery, as far as humanly possible and with the help of all of the obstetricians, all of the nurses, all the midwives. We are now close to, if not within, developed country status as far as the reduction of maternal mortality in Trinidad and Tobago. We did that is two short years.”

Deyalsingh, who first visited Port of Spain General maternity, was greeted by some of the North West Regional Health Authority’s administrative staff including its Ag CEO Cecilia Hutson and director of health Dr Dylan Narinesingh. When Deyalsingh first arrived he was treated to music by members of the Salvation Army, to which he danced and sang and even joined in.

Similarly, at Mt Hope Maternity Hospital, he was greeted by North Central Regional Health Authority’s Davlin Thomas and its chairman, Steve De Las among others.

“My purpose here is to thank all health care workers who during the year give yeoman’s service especially the nursing staff, doctors, wards maids, everybody really pulls together,” he said pointing to some of the staff at the Port of Spain General standing behind him.

He said there was a “whole new culture change” in the health sector and “we are cooperating a lot more and this is giving us a lot more positive outcomes.”

When asked what he presented to the newborns, Deyalsingh said the best thing he could present to them is a safe delivery. “That is the biggest gift we can give. We have been on a drive, all of us, to reduce maternal mortality and infant mortality and it is paying dividends.

DEALING WITH ISSUES

Asked about lack of medications at the pharmacy, he said, “I don’t think there is any serious lack of medication to talk about and it certainly has no impact because our rates of maternal mortality are going down. You will see in Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex we are doing a record number of surgeries. We are tackling all of the problems one by one and we are having positive outcomes across the board.”

The health minister could not state the number of recorded births throughout the country at the time. Summing up the health sector’s performance in 2017, Deyalsingh said, the biggest achievement in addition to reducing maternal mortality and in getting record number of surgeries done at Eric Williams has been the culture change.

Taking a jab at the much talked about Couva Children’s Hospital, Deyalsingh said “We did not need a billion dollars on a new hospital to improve efficiency. We needed teamwork and cooperation.”

He said in 2018 TT could look forward to a continuation of that policy but that for each of the RHAs “serious infrastructural improvement” was planned.

He said PoSGH would have its sod-turning for a new central block, which he described as being long-overdue. Deyalsingh added, “It is absolutely criminal that in a time of plenty, the former administration ignored the legitimate needs of Port of Spain Central block and build an 80-bed children’s hospital bearing in mind that the Wendy Fitzwilliam Children’s Hospital has only been 70 per cent utilised. Only 70 per cent. Why do that and ignore central block?”

Other items planned for the new year, he said, were a linear accelerator for the St James District Health Facility in about three weeks and a new CT machine for Sangre Grande among others.