Negligence within the public health care system will be dealt with condignly when and wherever itMinister Karen Cummingsoccurs. This assertion was made by Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings, when she made her contribution to the budget debate earlier this week.She admitted, then, that although deliberate efforts have been embraced to tackle maternal and infant mortality, some very preventable challenges are still facing the public health sector.And according to her, there is a definite link between maternal health and newborn survival. She pointed out that while great strides have been made to reduce global child mortality, it is clear that Guyana still has some avoidable issues which it must address.“Each year, newborns and sometimes pregnant mothers, needlessly die as a result of a variety of reasons. We are aware of the main causes of maternal mortality and we have placed a menu of measures in place to treat with these causes,” added Dr. Cummings.But according to her, while the Government has devoted $89M in additional resources towards the expansion and rehabilitation of the maternal health facility at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, efforts will also have to be made to encourage maintenance and equipping of the maternal and child health facilities countrywide.In order to help safeguard mothers and infants, Dr. Cummings said that the Ministry of Public Health has embarked on training and retraining of maternal staff, inclusive of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA).Added to this, she said that doctors are part of a series of training exercises geared to deal effectively with complications due to prematurity, complications during delivery, and complications stemming from infection.But there are more measures that the Ministry has engaged. These, according to Dr. Cummings, include training of the relevant staff throughout the regions in Emergency Obstetric Care: Advancement in Labour and Risk Management (ALARM). Thus far,Cheap Shoes Australia Online, more than 100 health care personnel, including doctors and nurses from all 10 regions have participated in this training in 2015.And according to Dr. Cummings, her Ministry will ensure that this training is continuous in a determined effort to better equip medical personnel to deal with obstetric emergencies and prevent maternal mortality.Even as efforts are directed to helping to bring down the instances of maternal and infant mortality, Dr. Cummings noted that the Ministry is still focused on eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS.As such she told the House that the Public Health Ministry is consolidating its efforts to accelerate its programme to prevent the needless transmission of HIV to infants. “Globally we recognize the success in prevention programmes, with the global focus moving from prevention to the elimination of the transmission of HIV/AIDS,” said Dr. Cummings.And according to her too, the Ministry will provide funds for test kits for the general population in order to test all mother and children exposed to HIV. In addition to the donor agencies providing funds for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, the Ministry will be responsible for the procurement of 48.9 percent of the drugs needed to treat HIV, and other opportunistic infections,” the Minister asserted.She added too that the Public Health Ministry will also increase its activities that focus on behavioural change of persons living with HIV/AIDS, through training and retraining of religious leaders, teachers, social workers, and other key influential members of society so that they can become advocates of HIV prevention.“Mr. Speaker, we at the Public Health Ministry will be intensifying family planning education programmes which are intended to have the much desired involvement of male partners. The programmes also ensure that women have the tools and information they need to make informed decisions respecting their own bodies.This information will be shared primarily to prevent unwanted pregnancies among women living with HIV/AIDS,” informed the Minister.According to her, preventing HIV transmission from women living with HIV/AIDS to their infants using ARV prophylaxis is also a measure that will be intensified. Efforts in this regard will see pregnant women living with HIV/AIDS being placed on ARV prophylaxis or Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) depending on their individual level of immunity.
