KEVON FELMINE

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

In 2015, T&T’s ma­ter­nal mor­tal­i­ty rate stood at 47.7, and 14 women died trag­i­cal­ly. It was dur­ing a pe­ri­od that Di­rec­tor of Women’s Health at the Min­istry of Health Dr Adesh Sir­jus­ingh said ex­pec­tant moth­ers had to de­liv­er ba­bies in “in­hu­mane” con­di­tions. 

As the South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (SWRHA) com­mis­sioned its re­fur­bished Ob­stet­ric The­atre Suite at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day, Sir­jus­ingh said women must nev­er again en­dure ma­ter­ni­ty care that is not re­spect­ful.

The re­fur­bished and re­mod­elled the­atre shared the spot­light with the new a Neu­ro­science Cen­tre and a Haemoth­ol­o­gy Ser­vices Unit which SWRHA chair­man Va­lerie Al­leyne-Rawl­ins of­fi­cial­ly opened.

Speak­ing at a com­mis­sion­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the San Fer­nan­do Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal, Sir­jus­ingh said that the new labour ward now has sep­a­rate rooms. He said the con­di­tions now af­ford pa­tients dig­ni­ty and al­lows their part­ners to wit­ness the births. It al­so fol­lows the up­grades to the re­sus­ci­ta­tion ar­eas and neona­tal and an­te­na­tal ser­vices. 

“When we came in 2017 and just be­fore, the labour ward, the pa­tients were de­liv­er­ing in what we con­sid­er in­hu­mane con­di­tions. They were sep­a­rat­ed by cur­tains. There was no pri­va­cy. We had lost re­spect­ful ma­ter­ni­ty care and what the South-West did was to cre­ate this new labour ward with sep­a­rate rooms,” Sur­jus­ingh.

He added that in 2015 and pre­vi­ous years, there was an up­surge in ma­ter­nal deaths that reg­u­lar­ly made head­lines. The Min­istry re­spond­ed by draft­ing an ac­tion plan to deal with neona­tal and ma­ter­nal health.

For many pa­tients with blood dis­or­ders, it usu­al­ly means reg­u­lar trips along the high­ways for treat­ment at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. But with the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal’s new Haemoth­ol­o­gy Ser­vices Unit, pa­tients in the South-West re­gion no longer have to trav­el far. SWRHA CEO Dr Bri­an Ar­mour said that along with the new Neu­ro­science Cen­tre, there is now en­hanced ser­vices for pa­tients.

Ar­mour said the Neu­ro­science Cen­tre and up­grades to the labour ward be­gan al­most three years ago while they es­tab­lished the Haemoth­ol­o­gy Ser­vices Unit in a month. With just a few tweaks, he said the new units should be op­er­a­tional by next week.