CHENNAI: Singapore International Foundation (SIF), a Singapore-based non-profit organisation, along with Tamil Nadu Health Department is set to extend its project to train healthcare workers in the state, to district level.
This is part of the three-year multi-disciplinary health care project to improve quality of maternal and child health services in Tamil Nadu by enhancing management of high-risk pregnancies in government hospitals.
Following the leaders’ study visit and dialogue, which was attended by Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar, there was a change in policy with respect to the number of nurses in the labour ward, according to SIF members.
The government had issued instructions to hire additional nurses for the labour ward to improve maternal care, they said. Other than policy change, NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and Labour Ward at Chengalpattu Medical College have taken steps towards reducing birth asphyxia rates ( deprivation of oxygen to a newborn).
A neonatologist is now permanently placed in the labour ward to remove the lag between sounding the code blue and the doctor reaching.
Chengalpattu Medical College has also adopted fishbone analysis, one of the root cause analysis tools introduced by Singapore International Volunteers in its NICU.
The diagram is used to identify the root causes of sepsis by identifying scenarios where there were lapses in hand hygiene. Nurses used stickers on the hand sanitiser bottles in each baby’s bassinet to measure its usage. “They found that people were more conscientious once they knew that usage was being tracked and sepsis decreased from 2.8 per cent in 2017 to 1.5 per cent, “ said the project summary by SIF.
The second phase of the project is being developed where district-level health care workers may be trained. Singapore International Volunteers team will conduct a feasibility study in the State early next month, focussing at the primary healthcare levels.
(This reporter visited Singapore in a trip sponsored by SIF to learn about its activities)