Hyderabad: At a major meeting on maternal deaths held by the TS government, it was stated that hospitals are understaffed in terms of units, doctors, nurses and paramedical staff and that the situation must be improved to control these deaths. The meeting was held with the doctors of Sultan Bazaar, Nayapul Maternity Hospital and Niloufer Hospital along with retired government gyneacologists to understand what has been going wrong and why there have been deaths occurring.
A senior gyneacologist said, “The maternity care units in area hospitals and public health centres have to be strengthened where there must be adequate paramedical staff as well as trained units so that all the women do not come rushing to the tertiary care centre. In terms of referrals from the public health units to the teaching hospitals only high-risk cases must be sent so that the burden is not so high.”
With more than 50 deliveries being done by the three hospitals on a daily basis, the burden is too high and the care that is required for critical care patients is not possible.
Proper documentation of all the case sheets must be done and the para-medical staff and house surgeons must pay attention to these case sheets which is important. A senior doctor said, “When cases get critical, the first reference point is the case sheet but due to lack of time, these details are not being entered properly. At the same time, there is no one to file these documents and keep them separately. Hence there is absolutely no paper work which is later available for reference.”
The recent cases also saw relatives running around for blood to various blood banks. For this reason, a blood bank is going to be set up in Niloufer Hospital. Director of health and medical education Dr M Ramani who has chaired the meeting explained, “A central sterilisation department will be set up in the three teaching maternity hospitals to maintain proper sterility of operation theater equipment.”
