DHENKANAL: Even as the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has been implemented in the district, proper maternal and child care continues to be a distant dream.
Improper implementation of various schemes under the NHRM, inadequate infrastructure and lack of proper mechanism in disbursing incentives to the beneficiaries are some of the reasons behind the sorry state of affairs in most of the hospitals here, opined participants in a workshop on maternal and child health, held recently.
Dhenkanal is one of the focus districts in Orissa for implementation of the global ‘Deliver now for women and children’ campaign, supported by World Health Organisation (WHO) and the White Ribbon Alliance International (WRAI) for safe motherhood.
“There is no dearth of medicines, funds and infrastructure, however, the service being provided to patients is not up to the mark,” said WRAI national co-chairman Nabin Pati. He further alleged that despite medical provisions for the women preferring institutional delivery, many of them are not being provided medicines as per their entitlement. “In most of the cases, their family members have to pay bribes and still they face difficulty in getting proper service,” he charged.
It is sad to see mothers carrying their newborns, while standing in long queues to receive their incentives for institutional delivery, Pati said besides demanding change of procedures where the women can get incentives without any difficulty.
Recalling death of a woman due to medical negligence in Kamakshyanagar hospital, in 24 hours of the delivery, he said that the team headed by former health director Seva Mohapatra had conducted a verbal autopsy and found that she had died of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), in absence of a doctor.
The team had also found out in its inquiry that most of the hospital staff have not undergone the required training for Skilled Attendants (SA) at birth.
WRAI district coordinator Suresh Kumar Panda , NGO partners and Mission reconstruction team members participated in the session.
