How maternal mortality incident stirred concerns over healthcare delivery service in Akwa Ibom

Akwa Ibom is grappling with an embarrassing maternal mortality incident. A young pregnant mother and her newborn died at a government-run secondary health facility and this has raised concerns about healthcare delivery service in the state.

The unfortunate incident occurred during the weekend and has brought to the fore once more the issue of maternal mortality in the state.

This is coming less than a month after the Commissioner for Health, Dr Ekem John set up a taskforce to “crash” the alarming rate of maternal mortality in the state

The video of the pregnant woman and her baby who died at the General Hospital, Ikot Ekpene was shared online by the deceased sister which has been trending ever since. The state government has promised a swift action the commissioner for health visited the hospital.

Akwa Ibom has three Local Government Areas that are contributing 55 percent of the maternal mortality with Nigeria contributing 30 percent of the global maternal deaths, experts say.

According to Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, National Coordinator of Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII), a health programme of the federal government to improve maternal and child health across the country.

For him, the local government areas and states selected for the pilot scheme recorded over 1000 maternal mortality including Akwa Ibom State, a sad development which is beyond the national average of 512 per 100,000 life births.

“So that is what informs the MAMI, and MAMI seeks to understand those barriers which we have found out in the last five days, by clear action plan or roadmap is what we have handed over to the commissioner

“That roadmap is the responsibility of the taskforce and they must ensure its implementation by working together and collaborating to be able to crash maternal mortality, ” Adeyanu stated.
Experts believe one major factor that needs to be addressed in the dearth of health workers largely due to the lack of sustained efforts to recruit and replace retiring health professionals..

Investigation shows the situation is so bad that the state government had to grant the extension of service to all nurses who were due for retirement two years ago.

Even in many local government areas, one nurse oversees all the health facilities while in some local government areas, there are no nurses,

Plans by Governor Umo Eno to employ 1000 health workers have not yet been implemented and many people believe it will be a far cry from what is actually needed.

Dr Nestor Udoh, a medical doctor and former permanent secretary reacting to the incident advised that more health workers should be engaged by the government.

” We implore the government to employ more doctors and post to that hospital, having worked there before. I am familiar with the work load and the pressure on the time and technical expertise of the average doctor working in that very hospital,” he said.

Meanwhile the state government has set up “a high-powered commission of inquiry comprising medical and legal experts, to establish the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident and recommend measures to prevent future occurrences, the commissioner for health, said in a statement.

Names of the committee members have not been disclosed but it should be noted that two committees have been raised within a month to address the nagging issue of maternal mortality which has turned a spotlight on the healthcare delivery service in the state.