Following a three-year collaboration between Karnataka and Singapore on antenatal and child healthcare, Karnataka has been able to significantly reduce Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), claim officials.
MMR has gone down from 144 per 100,000 live births in 2014 (Sample Registration System) to 65 (as per the State’s Civil Registration System), said Rajkumar N., Deputy Director (Maternal Health). He claimed that CRS is comparable to SRS, though they are two different systems of registrations.
He was speaking at the valedictory of “Enhancing Maternal and Child Health Services” (EMCH) programme — a three-year specialist programme implemented by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) in partnership with SingHealth and the State Institute of Health and Family Welfare (SIHFW), Government of Karnataka.
“The overall health and well-being of society is reflected in having a robust healthcare system for pregnant mothers and infants. Through the SIF and EMCH Programme, we have been able to address gaps in antenatal care and have made improvements in our journey in providing better services and creating a reliable, sustainable healthcare environment for our citizens,” the doctor pointed out.
Three-year programme
Over the three-year programme, nearly 223 doctors, nurses, public health leaders, and officials from Karnataka had the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with their Singaporean peers through a series of training workshops, a symposium, and a study visit of 45 professionals to Singapore. All parties gained valuable insights and perspectives from the exchange programme.
Among the trained pool of healthcare practitioners, 31 Master Trainers were identified and received additional training on how to cascade their knowledge to their peers in the industry. As a result, at least 100,000 pregnant mothers and newborns have benefited from better quality healthcare services, he said.
The EMCH programme was designed to help augment the government’s efforts to tackle preventable causes of both infant and maternal deaths, with the aim of reducing infant deaths and ensuring safer pregnancies for more women.
Since 2016, A/Prof Tan Hak Koon, SIF Specialist Team Leader and Senior Consultant, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, SingHealth has led a team of multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals from the Singapore General Hospital to work with their Indian counterparts in government healthcare institutions in 26 districts across Karnataka including Bengaluru, Belgaum, Mysuru, and Shivamogga to reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).
These efforts also contribute towards achieving the larger UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 of Good Health and Well-Being, where the global goal1 is to bring the MMR to 70 per 100,000 live births and IMR to 12 per 1000 live births. In India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s has set goals2 of achieving an MMR of 100 by 2020 and IMR of 28 by 2019.
