Singapore-Tamil Nadu tie-up ends after three years

CHENNAI: Singapore-Tamil Nadu collaboration on maternal and child health care was closed on Friday after three-year stint. The initiative under Enhancing Maternal and Child Health Services (EMCH) programme trained over 1,000 healthcare professionals with its special training of trainers programme and was of benefit to more than one lakh mother and newborns in Tamil Nadu.

Implemented by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) in partnership with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, Temasek Foundation International (TFI) and Sing Health, the programme ended with a Leader's Dialogue at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital to share their experiences over the past three years. “The programme helped to identify the key issues on public health, prevalent in Tamil Nadu that includes the need for appropriate infrastructure, socio-economic problems, lack of awareness and human resource management. We believe that we have helped play a small part in enabling safer pregnancies and deliveries in Tamil Nadu,” said Dr Shephali Tagore, senior consultant, department of maternal-fetal medicine, KK Women’s and Children’s (KKH) Hospital, Singapore.

Health minister C. Vijayabaskar emphasised on the need to ensure that every mother should have access to quality antenatal services and safe confinement on par with international standards. The EMCH Programme was launched in July 2015 in the state as a specialist programme to train healthcare professionals for better management of high-risk pregnancies through clinical training, management programmes. As part of this pilot project, the healthcare professionals from Singapore worked with their counterparts in Tiruchirappalli, Kanchipuram, and Pudukkottai, with a prime objective to reduce infant mortality rates (IMR) and maternity mortality rates (MMR). The healthcare professionals mentioned that Tamil Nadu is one of the leading states in India with an IMR of 17 and the state health department is aiming to attain a single digit IMR and ensuring safer pregnancies for more women with EMCH programme. Medical practitioners from MGM Hospital, Chengalpet Medical College and Hospital, Rannees Hospital, and district public health officials from the Primary Health Care Centres participated in the EMCH Programme.