The Director of Community Health Services of the Margibi County Health Team, alarms over the high rate of maternal mortality deaths at the C. H. Rennie Memorial Hospital in the county.Director James Varnie laments the growing number of maternal deaths in the only government referrer hospital is very alarming and needs to be curtailed before the situation goes from bad to worse.
According to the Liberia News Agency or LINA, he raised the alarm in a gathering with Margibi County District#3 Representative, Ellen A. Attoh.Varnie discloses that from January to August 2018, a total of 28 maternal deaths have been recorded at C.H. Rennie Hospital so far, mostly involving infants between one to five days old.
As a result of the situation, the Ministry of Health has put Margibi County as the second highest rated county with high maternal deaths in the country next to Montserrado County.Director Varnie however, blames the situation on mothers, who are accustomed to home or community delivery in the county.
“Many mothers are giving birth at home because they lack interest in the health facilities due to the lack of delivery kits and they don’t have money to buy them, and many of them who give birth at home, their babies are delivered with lots of health complications thus, causing these newly born babies to die between one to five days old”, he reveals.
The C. H. Rennie Hospital, which is located in Margibi County District #3, caters to over two hundred and nine thousand persons in the county.There are growing fears that if nothing were done to address the situation, it could become worse.
The hospital currently has a total capacity of 85 rooms, five medical doctors, four Physician Assistance, (P.A.) and more than one hundred nurses, but only 46 percent of nurses and other health workers are on government payroll, while the rest are placed on incentives that are not very regular.
C. H. Rennie Hospital Administrator, Mulbah Saywallah says US$200,000 was allotted in the 2018- 2019 fiscal budget for the hospital.He said with this amount, 50 percent is used to purchase fuel to run the generator.
–Editing by Jonathan Browne
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