-poor record keeping paralysed Cabinet reviews
CABINET has rejected outright the reasons for the delays at the Health Ministry in providing detailed records as investigations into the 2010 maternal deaths continue. This is according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon.
During a post-Cabinet press briefing Wednesday at the Office of the President, he said that the subject ministers were criticised for the 21 odd cases that occurred during the past few months.
Dr. Luncheon said that the Cabinet review process could only have pronounced based on submitted records, and it found that there were prevalent lapses in record-keeping and supervision at both the administrative and professional levels.
“These were two main considerations that contributed to the deaths; and in those cases where reviews were not possible, the lack of records completely paralysed those reviews,” he lamented.
A number of decisions were taken at the Cabinet level in this regard. These include the statutory introduction of the monitoring of maternal deaths by Cabinet, monitoring of infant deaths, and implementation of service contract initiatives between the Health Ministry and public hospitals.
Additionally, the body established under the Health Facilities Licencing Act will be reporting to Cabinet on the implementation of the Act, particularly as it relates to the development of its work programmes and other periodic reports, and addressing the accreditation of health institutions across the country.
Government reaffirmed its focus on the evidence of compliance with the rules and procedures of the maternal mortality review (a rule-based system that investigates every maternal death), issue of indiscipline and negligence, and improving the reporting relationship from the periphery to the center (identifying who is responsible).
Following the recent spate of maternal deaths, a defined role has been established for the Cabinet Sub-Committee on health and efforts are being made to ensure that this new role is properly integrated into the protocols that exist in the sector.  (GINA)