News and Events

Skilled Birth Attendance

 
1.         The first in-service Skilled Birth Attendance (SBA) training for doctors (medical officers) has started at Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Kathmandu. The course, which has just been finalised, is 45 days and will provide doctors with the skills needed for handling normal deliveries and complications.
 
2.         The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has now approved the proposal by Family Health Division and supported by SSMP, with the recommendation of the Nepal Medical Council and Nepal Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, that MBBS doctors (those with the basic medical qualification and no speciality), can be trained to carry out caesarean sections. A course is being developed that can either be a stand alone training or be included with other SBA or emergency obstetric care training. This is an important step in addressing the acute shortage of surgically skilled doctors across Nepal, which means that women with serious complications requiring a caesarean section must be transported to more distant hospitals, causing delays that are often fatal, or they may not be able to have surgery at all.
 
3.         SSMP is working with the DfID funded Health Sector Reform Support Programme to ensure the new Human Resource Management Strategy being developed by the MoHP effectively addresses human resource needs for safe delivery. A recent study on Human Resource Strategies for Safe Delivery, carried out by Riitta Liisa Kolehmainen-Aitken and Ishwar Shrestha in 15 districts highlights critical staff shortages. Some of the key preliminary findings were:
 
Ø         A serious lack of staff nurses in PHCCs and health posts (only 56% of sanctioned posts filled, and of those only 86% actually working)
Ø         Many unfilled posts in district hospitals (only 63% of sanctioned posts for medical officers filled and only 50% of anaesthesiologists)
Ø         Only three out of the ten district hospital surveyed had a complete safe delivery team
Ø         Only one out of the 15 health posts surveyed had two Auxiliary Nurse Midwives, the absolute minimum required to provide 24-hour delivery services
  
These findings will guide SSMP advocacy for the development of a strategy that addresses these critical issues and supports national efforts to improve and increase safe delivery and emergency care services.

17/09/2008 Ashima Shrestha SSMP