UNFPA boosts decentralized obstetric care in Fiji

UNFPA boosts decentralized obstetric care

Suva, April 4, 2013 – The provision of effective care for women in need of maternal health services was boosted this week with the handing over of emergency obstetric care (EmOC) equipment on Thursday to the Ministry of Health (MOH) from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The equipment which includes ultrasounds, cardiotocographic (CTG) machines which monitor babies’ heart rate during labour, delivery beds, foetal dopplers, electrocardiography machines and more cost about $0.5million.

The provision of these EmOC equipment from the UNFPA Pacific Sub-Regional Office (PSRO) is the culmination of discussions between the UNFPA PSRO and the MOH since an (EmOC) assessment in Fiji in 2009 which found that except for the three divisional and a private hospital in Fiji, no other hospital was equipped and/or staffed to deliver comprehensive emergency obstetric care.

The report recommended that the MOH upgrade the range of EmOC services at five (critically located) sub-divisional hospitals - Levuka, Nausori, Nadi, Ba and Savusavu.

“The EmOC equipment will help raise the status of these five centres for provision of basic emergency obstetrics care to assist nurses, midwives and doctors deliver high quality obstetric and neonatal emergency care to women, mothers and their babies,” UNFPA PSRO Director and Representative a.i Dr Annette Sachs-Robertson said.

“It is our hope that the equipment being supplied today will be easy to use and provide vital information on women and babies to enable their caregivers to deliver to them the highest level of care. Not only are we concerned about survival but we are very concerned about quality of care and subsequent quality of life.”

“We, at UNFPA PSRO, look forward to continued collaboration with the MOH towards reproductive health to promoting the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. We look forward to supporting Fiji in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensuring that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.”

The EmOC equipment was supplied by the UNFPA Procurement Services Branch in Copenhagen (Denmark) which supplies such commodities globally. UNFPA’s three-pronged strategy to reducing maternal mortality and morbidity includes: Family planning to ensure that every birth is wanted; Skilled care by a health professional with midwifery skills for every pregnant woman during pregnancy and childbirth; and Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) to ensure timely access to care for women experiencing complications.

ENDS

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