E-Paper
Now, confidential audit to identify cause of maternal deaths in UP
This will be a kind of secret audit, wherein the auditor will not know the place and time of death of a woman. Also the hospital, where the death occurred, won’t know where and who is doing the audit, says DG (family welfare)
LUCKNOW In a first of its kind exercise in UP, the family welfare directorate has decided to start a confidential audit to ascertain the cause of women’s death during pregnancy and childbirth. Uttar Prdaesh’s maternal death rate is 167 per 1,00,000 live births, according to the sample registration system for 2017-19. .
“This will be a kind of secret audit, wherein the auditor will not know the place and time of death of the mother. Also the hospital, where the death occurred, won’t know where and who is doing the audit. It will be an absolute opinion from the expert panel,” said Dr Renu Srivastava, director general, family welfare.
As per the current system, death audits are done in cases of maternal death and details of the mother are sent to the audit team while the team is also known to the hospital. Sometimes, because of this information, small mistakes are ignored, opined health experts.
“Even the smallest mistake is crucial to prevent a maternal death, particularly if it is a trend. Hence, we are going for confidential audit, not to penalise anyone, but to find out what all is not being followed so that lives (of mothers) can be saved,” said Dr Srivastava, who also holds charge of director general, training, in the health department.
“A confidential death audit will enable the state to compile a detailed work plan. If causes are known without any bias, the information can be utilised to prevent death of each vulnerable woman in Uttar Pradesh,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.
In the first phase, confidential audit of maternal deaths will be done in about a dozen districts, and these will be identified by a panel. Broadly, there will be at least five districts with highest maternal mortality and five with lowest, and a few with average maternal mortality. “We want to study what goes on in the districts with high maternal death rate and also practices in districts with low maternal death rate,” said Srivastava.
HOW WILL THE AUDIT BE DONE?
Following a maternal death, the case file will be received by the directorate of family welfare department. The file, with all documents related to admission, treatment and case management, will be scanned and details about the hospital and the patient will be removed/blurred.
The file will then be handed over to a panel of experts comprising doctors from medical colleges. They will analyse the details and give an opinion on the case.
The opinion will then be put with the original case file and a team at the directorate will again analyse the shortcomings at hospitals, if any. “If there are some common mistakes, the information will help bring down maternal mortality in the state,” said Dr Amita Shukla, senior gynaecologist, SC Trivedi Memorial Trust hospital.
