Indian Express: Mumbai: Tuesday, October 01, 2013.
Almost 40 per
cent or 11 civic maternity homes in the city do not have an ambulance,
according to information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has 27 maternity homes and a mother
and child hospital, which cumulatively handle close to 50,000 births yearly.
With around
1.6 lakh births a year in the city, a large chunk of the lower-income group
depends on the 28 maternity homes and 24 civic hospitals. However, with only 17
such maternity homes providing ambulance, many women in labour fail to make it
on time for delivery.
“A maternity
home’s ambulance can be called only between 9 am and 4 pm. In such a case, it
becomes difficult for women in labour to travel from their homes to a maternity
home,” said Dr Saida Khan, a corporator from L-Ward (Kurla).
According to
BMC data, the maternity homes also face staff shortage, with 32 per cent
medical posts currently remaining vacant. Among them, seven have a 50 per cent
vacancy. Of the 87 sanctioned posts for medical staff, 59 have been filled so
far.
At Oshiwara
Municipal maternity home ub Jogeshwari (West), all three posts for medical
staff are lying vacant, and it currently relies on para-medical staff.
The situation
for para-medical staff and class IV employees is a little better. There is 20
per cent vacancy in posts for para-medical staff and 13 per cent in class IV
employees.
Three
maternity homes Chunabhatti, Tagore Nagar and Riddi Garden have no Doppler
foetal monitor. A Doppler is an ultrasound, which is required during pregnancy
to assess the growth and condition of a baby in the womb.
Dr Yogeshwar
S Nandanwar, head of neonatology at Sion hospital, said, “In the absence of a
Doppler monitor, a doctor has to rely on stethoscope to measure the heart rate
of a baby, which is a vague assessment. A Doppler is more accurate.”
There is also
a dearth of paediatricians. “Only around seven maternity homes have
paediatricians. A maternity home must house at least one,” said Khan.
According to
the RTI data, there were close to 55,000 registrations across all maternity homes
till September 20 this year. Only 27,745 deliveries, however, have taken place.
“This shows that only about 50 per cent deliveries happened at maternity
homes,” Khan said.
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