Corruption crisis worsens maternal mortality in public hospitals

Share current article via Email Share current article via Facebook Share current article via Twitter Share current article via LinkedIn A news report revealed that the country recorded a maternal mortality ratio of 111.7 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023, an increase from 109.6 deaths in 2022. File picture: (Raymart Arniño) Story audio is generated using AI South Africa boasts one of the most sophisticated economies, advanced medical training facilities and a constitution that guarantees the right to reproductive health care. However, the country's alarmingly high maternal mortality ratio is a cause for concern. A news report last week revealed that South Africa recorded a maternal mortality ratio of 111.7 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023. This was an increase from 109.6 deaths in 2022 and 98.8 in 2019, before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Olivia Barigye, a foetal maternal medicine specialist, said South Africa needs to accelerate the decline in maternal deaths if it is to meet the UN sustainable development goal of reducing maternal mortality to less than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030. She said the current pace of decline was too slow. While South Africa outperforms the devastating Sub-Saharan regional average of more than 440 deaths, it remains a stark outlier compared with global peers with similar economic resources. For a nation with its level of infrastructure, the UN target of less than 70 deaths per 100,000 should not merely be an aspirational baseline. It should already have been achieved. South Africa does not suffer from a lack of resources but from an acute crisis of resource equity and poor operational governance. While the private sector matched the single-digit maternal death ratios of Western Europe, the underfunded, overstretched public sector bears the weight of the nation's maternal mortality statistics. The problem is that the resources in the public sector are depleted through institutional inefficiencies, administrative mismanagement and corruption. The looting at Tembisa Hospital, where the Special Investigating Unit uncovered a massive corruption scandal that drained more than R2bn from the hospital through fraudulent tenders and shell companies, is a case in point. To rapidly drive down maternal deaths, South Africa must move away from a model of reactive emergency care to one of clinical precision. The country must aggressively deal with delays that turn treatable complications into fatalities. These include delays in seeking care, in reaching a facility, and in receiving quality intervention on arrival. Investing in dedicated, strategically stationed obstetric emergency transport networks is a low-hanging fruit that the state possesses the financial capital to implement. The state should also move its focus towards the primary drivers of mortality, such as obstetric haemorrhage and hypertensive disorders such as pre-eclampsia. These are highly preventable conditions. South Africa needs to maximise its existing workforce by fast-tracking the deployment of specialised advanced midwives and ensuring that every community health clinic is continuously stocked with basic, life-saving consumables, including blood pressure monitoring equipment. South Africa possesses the wealth, the intellect and the medical infrastructure required to be a global beacon of maternal health. To save its mothers, the nation must stop measuring its success by the standards of its poorest neighbours and begin holding itself accountable with the vast resources at its disposal.