Neonatal care: Five years of Peshawar Women Hospital celebrated

Facility was established by Médecins Sans Frontières in 2011

PESHAWAR: The fifth anniversary of Peshawar Women Hospital was celebrated in the city. This was mentioned in a statement issued by MSF on Wednesday. The facility has been established by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF),

“We provide care for those women who experience serious complications during pregnancy,” the handout quoted MSF Country Representative in Pakistan Catherine Moody as saying. “This can create problems for women and their children.”

Inaccessible areas

According to Moody, the hospital provides obstetric care for women who either cannot afford the services offered by other facilities or have no access to skilled obstetric services near their houses.

She said MSF has trained the medical staff at basic health units and enabled them to detect the patients with high-risk pregnancies during antenatal check-ups.

“This will ensure the cases are referred to the hospital in a timely manner,” the document cited Moody as saying.

MSF Paediatrician Dr Anokhi Ali Khan said the hospital offered free health care for premature babies or those suffering from health issues at birth. She said all this was done in the hospital’s 15-bed neonatology unit.

“A large number of mothers [who visit the hospital] have high-risk pregnancies and require special care,” she was quoted as saying.

Anokhi Ali added women and their babies do not have access to proper health care in rural areas, which is why they could not get regular check-ups for diseases and infections. “This is likely to be one of the most significant factors of high neonatal mortality rate in the region,” the MSF paediatrician was quoted as saying.

At work

However, the statement read, MSF has delivered 15,093 babies at the facility and treated at least 2,137 neonates in the unit concerned during the last five years.

The hospital was established in 2011. It admits around 85 patients weekly and delivers thousands of babies.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2016.