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Locadia Mavhudzi Midlands Correspondent
Government has embarked on a drive to strengthen primary health care in the country through decentralisation of the deployment of midwives, Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa has said.
He said this at the commemoration of the International Day of Midwives at Gweru Provincial Hospital held recently.
“The new dispensation has embarked on a deliberate move to strengthen primary health care through training more people in the health sector and midwives are not left out,” he said. “We want every health centre to have a skilled midwife stationed there.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said the decentralisation will result in all health centres offering maternal services to reduce pressure on major hospitals
“All health institutions should be able to offer maternal services,” he said. “We want to do away with the current massive referral system.
“We intend to capacitate every clinic with requisite infrastructure to enable maternal services to be safely delivered.”
Dr Parirenyatwa said Government recognised the shortage of critical infrastructure such as ambulances in rural health centres.
He said the health sector investment will also be characterised by increased training opportunities for various health services.
“As we train for various expert fields, we are embracing diverse skills and languages where a health worker should be able to communicate in other native languages besides English, Shona and Ndebele,” he said.
Dr Parirenyatwa noted that the Traditional Birth Attendants (TBSs) were now lagging behind in terms of technological demands of making pregnancies and child birth safer.
“We are now discouraging the option of Traditional Birth Attendants because more complications are arising from that,” he said.
“Let us continue to encourage our women to use the safer route for maternal services, which are clinics and hospitals.”
Online Reporter