When the AMAI team conducted the assessment at
health facilities in Lundazi district, I was unnerved by the general lack of medicine,
supplies and general infrastructure. Sometimes those supplies
were present but non-functional.
One facility received donated dental equipment. The problem? There are no
dentists at this facility.
Many other facilities either had “improvised” beds or
general patient beds due to limited resources. There were also concerns about power sources. Since many facilities have makeshift
power supplies that include a solar panel, battery and an inverter but the
usage from this power source varied depending upon the quality of equipment and
any damage that might have happened to the equipment.
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| An improvised labor and delivery bed |
Another part of the facility assessment included indentifying
medications for antenatal, labor and delivery and postnatal patients. Some facilities lacked medical supplies
due to policy and training issues; a facility cannot supply services or
medications that they are not equipped to handle in terms of trained staff and
overall facility structure. For
those few facilities that could provide comprehensive services, I wonder how
pregnant mothers feel about traveling 50K away from their villages only to
discover that they can’t receive services because a health post or clinic is stocked
out of 1 or 2 medications.
Sometimes, women are asked to bring in their own supplies for delivery,
which can cause financial strain on families.
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| Medical supplies |
I think one great resource that expectant mother’s could
tremendously benefit from are mothers’ shelters. Fully functioning mothers’ shelters would provide
reassurance to mothers willing to leave the comforts and familiarity of their
homes to stay near the facility for a safe delivery. The average range of time facilities kept women after
delivery was between 6-24 hours, however these facilities oftentimes don’t have
the capacity to keep many women for observation.
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| Infrastructure of a Mothers' shelter |
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| Mothers' shelter kitchen |
I empathize with the frustration and embarrassment some of
the health care staff had to endure for conditions that were barely within
their control. I think that
improving the supply-chain management would eliminate the problem of medication
and supply stocks. I also think
that slowly improving facility extensions such as the mothers’ shelter is a
great next step in providing a safe haven for expectant mothers.
My next and last general post on the facility assessment
trip will discuss training and staff concerns.
