The Eastern Cape is continuing with its drive to reduce its infant mortality rate. This as in South Africa an average of 32 babies out of every 1000 births die before they turn one-year-old.
One way of reducing this number is through using midwives – which is a focus area of government.
A second annual Midwifery seminar was held as part of this strategy. A midwife who participated, Ntombizanele Brenda Ngwabeni, says continuous updates are necessary to stay at the forefront.
“A profession needs to be updated and then if there is new information coming in, if there are new incidents coming in, if there are new skills that have been researched and found out to make a difference, that is the information that is shared.”
Reducing medical malpractice litigation through skills development was also part of the seminar. The provincial health department is currently facing malpractice litigation amounting to R26 billion.
A clinical specialist, Sibongile Mandodo, says proper training will reduce the number of claims.
“Our approach in this seminar is to say the workforce needs to make sure that they have the necessary skills to deal with emergencies safely. We have got the right protocols and we have patient safety models and the monitoring to ensure that quality and we can see the adherence to the clinical guidelines.”
