Reducing our infant mortality and maternal mortality rates will be a mammoth task.
The Minister of Health, Dr Neil Sharma says over the last two years it has been hectic trying to reform health care and health delivery.
“Hiigh on the Ministry of Health’s agenda right now is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) four , five and six, which we are directly responsible for,” Dr Sharma said.
- MDG Four : Reduce child mortality
- MDG Five : Improve maternal health
- MDG Six : combat major diseases
For the Anti-Natal Care (ANC) unit alone there are 150 -200 patients per day at the Colonial War Memorial hospital maternity ward with a staff of nine attending to the expectant mothers.
In a handing-over ceremony today the Ministry of Health’s development partners donated and funded assistance in the form of chairs for antenatal mothers, medical equipment (foetal Doppler’s), a program vehicle and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials on sexual reproductive health, all to improve and strengthen areas of sexual reproductive health.
United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) provided chairs and reproductive health programme vehicle, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF gave chairs (PPTCT/ANC) International Labour Organisation gave – IEC for sexual and reproductive health materials (6,000 copies of 11 sets of brochures in the three languages) and Fiji Health Sector Improvement Program provided Foetal Doppler’s
“We are very grateful to donors for all the support they are providing, when we took over in 2009 figures showed there was about $8m of assistance coming from donor agencies but that has really swelled in the last two years from $8m to $12m and we have projected for 2011 $24m worth of aid, a blessing for all the people in Fiji,” Dr Sharma said.
However, there are restraints in technology and manpower , an area needed to be addressed to bring the numbers down and provide high quality care.
“Government is making a lot of moves and you would have heard in the last Budget announcement that there will be vouchers for mothers who are pregnant and fall within an income category to encourage them to book early,” Dr Sharma said
“If they know there is an incentive there to buy food while they are pregnant, patients can book a little earlier. Problems arise when patients book very late or when expecting mothers, who already have children do not attend clinics.
“Government is working towards that vigorously.”
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