The News Review:
- Louisiana, Jindal Launches Child Health Program
- Maternal health risks – Family health doctors say more funding…
- Doctors challenge health MEC
Louisiana, Jindal Launches Child Health Program
Bayou Buzz – Apr 27, 2008
“That’s why we’ve made children’s access to health insurance a top priority. Through the recent expansion of LaCHIP, we’ll make health insurance available to more than 6,000 additional children throughout the state. ”
Jindal mentioned the importance of health for children. He and his wife a few years ago discovered that they newly born child had a heart problem. LaCHIP provides health coverage for over 118,000 Louisiana children, contributing to the decrease in the rate of uninsurance in Louisiana. According to the recent Louisiana Health Insurance Survey, only 5. 4 percent of Louisiana children are currently uninsured, compared to almost 25 percent ten years ago when LaCHIP began.
Maternal health risks – Family health doctors say more funding…
Jamaica Gleaner – Apr 27, 2008
While protocols have been introduced to reduce and manage the leading cause of death in Jamaica, hypertension, little can be done about the botched abortions – the fifth-leading cause of maternal deaths – as long as legislation on the matter remained out of place, Lewis-Bell said. Need a change”We need a change in the law to facilitate the Ministry of Health taking an adequate public-health approach to the management and regulation of abortions,” said Dr Olivia McDonald, executive director of the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) – an entity which also contributes to the Safe Motherhood initiative of the Ministry of Health. Last week, the international Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, called on G8 leaders to fulfil previous commitments to global health and commit to new, long-term fi-nancing for essential interventions that can avert the deaths of over six million mothers, newborns and children every year. The statement called for an additional $10. 2 billion annually, the estimated cost to ensure universal coverage of basic services needed to achieve Millennium Development Goals on reducing child death and improving maternal health by 2015, respectively. The United Nations Millennium Development Goals call for a 75 per cent reduction in maternal mortality between 1990 and 2015. The three-pronged strategy to accomplish this goal is access by all women to contraception to avoid unintended pregnancies; the availa-bility to all of skilled care at the time of birth; and, timely access to quality emergency obstetric care for those suffering complications.
Doctors challenge health MEC
Independent Online – Apr 27, 2008
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KZN Health spokesperson Chris Maxon said his department did not believe patients would suffer most and that Blaylock “has been advised of his right to appeal” against his suspension. Commenting on the call for Blaylock to be reinstated, Maxon said “we will protect (institutional managers) from any intimidation or undue pressure that seeks to make them deviate from their quest to uphold and expect proper conduct from all public servants, without favour or fear”. Apologised
Blaylock, who has diplomas in child health, anaesthetics and tropical medicine, has worked for the past six years at Manguzi, on the Mozambique border near Kosi Bay. “I have given my heart and soul to this hospital, working far beyond my designated duties,” Blaylock said in a statement at his disciplinary hearing. He apologised for throwing the picture in the bin, saying he had been provoked by statements made by the MEC during a visit to the hospital. She apparently said that rural doctors were interested in “profits, not caring about people” and that the anti-retroviral drug, AZT, was toxic. “While I realise that it was an inappropriate action for which I apologise, I believe the MEC’s statements were extremely unfair and slanderous, and that was the direct cause of my irrational impulse,” said Blaylock.
