Deliveries by untrained staff, lack of follow-ups driving maternal deaths: Punjab health dept review
A review meeting by the Punjab health department on Friday revealed these failures, including gross negligence by health personnel
Rising maternal deaths in Punjab are being driven by lack of follow-up for high-risk pregnancies, home deliveries by lay midwives and deliveries handled by untrained staff, pointing to serious lapses in the state’s healthcare system.
A review meeting by the Punjab health department on Friday revealed these failures, including gross negligence by health personnel.
In one case of negligence in the Tarn Taran district, a pregnant woman delivered a baby at home. But died due to infection after allegedly remaining unattended for 18 days. Even the newborn was not given the mandatory immunisation at birth by a health professional.
“This is a serious lapse on the part of the district health officials. We have sought an explanation from the concerned ASHA worker and auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) over the negligence,” said a senior health official.
In another case from the Patti area of Tarn Taran, a 25-year-old pregnant woman developed seizures after being administered local anaesthesia. She was referred to a higher-level hospital while she was still seizing, a move described as gross negligence by the health staff. Both the mother and the newborn died.
The maternal death review further revealed that in Amritsar, a delivery was conducted by an untrained health professional at a private nursing home, which led to the death of pregnant woman.
“Since the nursing home was being run by untrained staff, we have sealed the facility,” a senior health official said.
In Ludhiana, a high-risk delivery was conducted by a staff nurse instead of a gynaecologist.
Another case involved a pregnant woman who died due to complications at the Jalandhar civil hospital, four days after delivering at the facility, despite availability of gynaecologists.
“For four consecutive days, the patient’s condition kept deteriorating, but no intervention was made by the doctors. An explanation must be taken from the gynaecologists,” a senior state health official stated during the meeting.
‘Blood pressure not being monitored’
The review meeting also highlighted that the blood pressure of pregnant women was often not being monitored by trained staff.
A senior health official remarked in the meeting: “Women are dying from eclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication linked to high blood pressure, yet their investigations show no signs of hypertension. How is it that only during delivery their BP shoots up so drastically? This indicates improper monitoring of blood pressure during follow-up.”
When asked about the rising Maternal Mortality Ratio, Dr Aditi Salaria, director, health and family welfare, said, “We have already sought explanations from many civil surgeons regarding home deliveries. Action-taken reports have been demanded from district officials over such issues.”
On the question of negligence by health officials, Dr Salaria said, “We have instructed officials to ensure such incidents are not repeated in future. Measures have been taken to ensure follow-up of high-risk pregnancies by senior district health officials themselves, rather than leaving it solely to ASHA workers or ANMs.”
