PARTICIPANTS in a maternal and child health workshop on Tuesday were challenged to look at the bigger picture and approach the delivery of health care in that context.
Country Representative of Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO), Dr Kathleen Israel, threw out the challenge at the opening of the three-day event, in Regency Suites Hotel, Hadfield Street, Georgetown.
“We need to understand this and advocate for improvement,” she said, underscoring that, in Guyana, efforts in maternal and child health have placed the country in the right direction, with downward trends in maternal and child deaths.
According to her, in that way, the determinants of health, the things that impact health are better understood and measures can be taken towards prevention.
“This will, ultimately, bolster the efforts being made in the curative area. We tend to work in a vacuum but we are not. We have to see the bigger picture,” Israel maintained.
She said part of the bigger picture is the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and reminded the health workers in attendance that their work, in the area of maternal and child health, directly addresses MDGs Four (Reduction of child mortality) and Five (Improving maternal health).
“The MDGs speak directly to your work but other MDGs have an impact on the conditions that you deal with. There is a direct correlation to what you do,” Israel pointed out.
She said the Government of Guyana has signed on to achieving the MDGs by 2015 and, in this regard, health workers have a responsibility to continue the actions being taken to address maternal and child health.
“Your work will add up to a larger effort,” the diplomat assured.
Israel also encouraged the health workers to, in their circumstances, be more observant and open to other individuals and theirs.
She said that would allow health workers to deliver health care in a more empathetic and focused manner.
Israel said, in order to increase the quality of health care delivery, health workers must think outside the narrow medical model they have been conditioned to embrace.
“The issue of quality is critical. It is not only about skills but the level of quality we bring to bear,” she remarked.
Israel lauded the workshop’s organisers as well as the participating health workers, stating that such fora afford reflections and repositioning with focus on the way forward.
She said participation implies commitment to learning through exposure to new concepts and strategies, which contribute to the successes that maternal and child health has seen in the past year.
Successes
Israel said the successes are the strides that have been made with advancing training in emergency obstetric care.
She said there is a cadre of trainers and Guyana will soon be in a position to continuously train other trainers.
Israel said the skilled personnel will help lower the number of maternal and infant deaths and new skills mean early diagnosis which, in turn, leads to interventions that will interrupt possible complications.
She added that self-sufficiency, through training, will lead to sustainability and, ultimately, improvements in overall health care.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shamdeo Persaud, agreed and emphasised that the task of health workers is the promotion of the comprehensive health care services.
He said another achievement of maternal health care is the people that the service has been able to reach.
“Maternal health care achieved a tremendous goal, where people were reached where hospitals and health centres are not located,” Persaud reported.
He was confident there will be advancements as the health sector aims at reducing maternal and infant mortalities.
Persaud disclosed that one of the proposals in the pipelines is to have roving obstetricians, primarily in the hinterland and coastal communities, to provide support to the delivery of maternal and child health across this country.
Maternal Health Care Director, Dr Janice Woolford stated that, in 2010, quality care is increasingly becoming the focus of her unit.
“The last five years we have had successes but we still have work to do,” she acknowledged, explaining that the workshop would serve to review the strengths and weaknesses of maternal health care and inspire recommendations for improvement.