Only fewer women can access maternal health services at one of the major health facilities in Kagera Region owing to cessation of the Maternity Delivery Relief Fund. The fund which came to an end in 2008 was jointly supported by the Church of Sweden Mission and the Danish Mission Society at Ndolage hospital in Muleba District since 1986.
The hospital Doctor in Charge Samwel Byabato said since cessation of foreign aid, the gap inflicted had to be partly filled by pregnant women who paid medical fees amounting to Sh 14, 829, 835 between 2009 and 2011. This contradicts with the existing government health policy by especially making it difficult for most women to access the basic medical services which they were otherwise entitled for free.
The statistics show that cessation of the foreign aid has tremendously impacted on the hospital deliveries which dropped sharply from 1, 562 deliveries in 2004 down to 506 births recorded in 2012.
The hospital’s doctor in charge Samwel Byabato, said that donor fatigue to continue supporting the fund has also seen a significant increase of women suffering from pregnancy related complications during delivery.
Mr Byabato said the hospital recorded 1,170 normal deliveries in 2004 but the figure dropped dramatically to only 352 normal deliveries in 2012.
The decline in normal deliveries meant that most expectant women reported late to hospital and only when relatives felt there was very little traditional birth attendants could do to avert the imminent deaths emanating from lack of proper care by skilled birth attendants.
“Many pregnant women report to hospital late, probably to avoid charges they have to pay in hospital and sometimes report with complications after failure of normal delivery in the village,” said Mr Byabato.
According to the policies, pregnant women and children under five years of age should be provided with free health services at all times of need. To mitigate the plight faced by expectant women in accessing maternal health services, the Hospital incurred about Sh 160, 646, 100 from own sources in between 2009 and 2011.
Ndolage Hospital which is a non-profit making voluntary medical agency run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) relies on patient fees to cover about 75 per cent of its total expenditure of which the remaining 20 per cent is subsidized through the government and donor supports.
Since the prevailing circumstances, the hospital recorded a notable increase in cesarean deliveries and statistics show live births figures deteriorated from 1, 558 cases recorded in 2004 down to only 503 live births in 2012.
After the cessation of Maternity Delivery Fund, the hospital percentage of cesarean section deliveries rose from 25 percent in 2004 to 30 percent in 2012. This implies that probably most mothers were anticipating difficulties. Read part of the hospital report released recently.
The report shows that the hospital recorded only one maternal death in 2012 as compared to 4 deaths reported in 2004 but that does not mean there was any improvement as the figures suggest high mortality rate in 2012 based on the number of hospital deliveries of 1,562 and 506 respectively.
The doctor in charge said the decline in number of expectant mothers accessing maternal health services offered by the facility was an obvious effect of delivering such expensive services without a reliable source of funding.
Apart from the cessation of the foreign aid, the hospital was grappling with other challenges in a bid to cope with hiked prices of medical consumables against economic instability hampering the capacity of more than 60, 000 people of its target population to access health services.
With this at stake, salary increase in government facilities has impliedly led to a surge of the hospital staff departing in search for greener pastures or otherwise forcing the charitable facility to pay higher salaries against its financial capacity in retaliation.
The Hospital was started by the Germany Missionary Doctor way back in 1928 as a small health unit before it gradually grew up and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in North Western Diocese took full responsibility of running the facility with the capacity of 260 beds.