Nashik health department provides more doctors to rural hospitals to handle more deliveries – ET HealthWorld

Nashik: Efforts are being made to increase the number of pregnant women having their deliveries in the rural areas instead of being referred to the district hospitals for every small problem, said the officials of the civil hospital and district health office on Tuesday.

For this, the number of doctors in rural hospitals has been increased. Civil surgeon Ashok Thorat said there was a tendency among doctors to refer pregnant women to sub-district or civil hospital even if there was no complication.

“There were unnecessary referrals of pregnant women to hospitals away from the villages. This was adding to the pressure on these hospitals. Since January, ‘maternal referral audit’ had been carried out as per the instructions of Union minister of state for health and family welfare Bharati Pawar, and now, the percentage of such deliveries has come down from 30% to around 10%,” the officer said.

Around 5,200 deliveries take place every month in rural areas and it is expected that around 15% of such deliveries may be referred to bigger hospitals. In the other cases, the delivery of the child needs to take place at the regular primary health centres (PHCs).

The health officials pointed out that a team of around 20 doctors, including gynaecologists and paediatricians, will be provided as and where required by realigning the personnel for the purpose of safe deliveries in the rural areas.

“For this, a social media group was formed in which referral of deliveries from smaller to bigger hospitals was intimated. The senior officials then cross checked the need and appropriate decisions for referral were taken,” a health official said. The district health office of Nashik Zilla Parishad also interacted with doctors on the condition of patients and how to deal with such cases.

“Such interactions have ensured that deliveries were conducted at PHCs or at the rural hospitals unless there is was a need to be referred to the sub-district or district hospitals,” district health officer Kapil Aher said.