CHENNAI: Massive improvements in infrastructure and among staff employed at State-run Primary Health Centres (PHCs) have increased the number of mothers coming there to give birth, said Girija Vaidyanathan, the Principal Health Secretary, Government of TN. “The number of people giving birth in PHCs has gone up from eight per cent to 25 per cent,” she said. This has, in turn, brought down the number of babies delivered in the private sector by 10 per cent across Tamil Nadu, she added.She spoke about maternity and child care in Tamil Nadu, a topic that she has a good deal of expertise in. “We were the first and only state to introduce primary health management cadre at the district level. Added to the massive upgradation of PHCs we have seen, this has driven the healthcare in the public sector to great heights,” she said. Illustrating her point, she spoke about how the number of PHCs increased from 400 in 1980 to 1,400 in 1990 to a respectable 1,600 at present.It is a matter of pride, she said, that Tamil Nadu had a lower Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) than the national target. “The MMR has dropped from an imposing 97 per one lakh in 2007 to 71 per one lakh this year,” said the Health Secretary. The IMR has also reduced from 35 per 1,000 births to 28 per 1,000 births in 2010. However, when compared with developed nations, that rate is still too high, despite the state ranking second best, nationally.Due to non-classification of what factors were driving up maternal mortality, the number was high a few years ago, she admitted, “Now, we have ascertained that close to 60 per cent deaths are preventable and are caused by haemorrhage and pregnancy-induced hypertension,” she concluded. This was part of the 19th KS Sanjeevi Memorial Endowment Lecture at Voluntary Health Services, held in the city recently.
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