Noted cardiac surgeon and founder of the Narayana Hrudayalaya, Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, urged the government to train health workers and equip them with skills to handle emergency deliveries and administer anaesthesia. He was speaking here on Friday at the 4th National Annual Clinical Cardiology Updates 2013 (IACCCON 2013), conducted by the Indian Association of Clinical Cardiologists.
“There is a need for skilled workers, more than doctors of wisdom. In the USA, in 67 per cent of the cases, anaesthesia is administered by trained nurses. Trained ward boys in Mozambique even carry out Caesarean-section deliveries,” he said.
Dr Shetty also said India’s Maternal Mortality Rate was the highest in the world. “Every 10 minutes, a woman dies while delivering a baby. We need 1.5 lakh gynecologists, but have only 40,000 when 5.6 million of the 28 million babies born in the country each year are through a C-section,” he said. He suggested that introducing emergency obstetric services was the only way to mitigate the problem.
Referring to the courses offered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS), Dr Shetty urged the state government to start recognising these courses.
Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader said that lack of commitment on the part of doctors was preventing quality health care services from reaching underprivileged patients across the state. He said the government will hold discussions with Dr Shetty on introducing CPS courses in state.