UNICEF assessment …GPHC fails to meet Baby Friendly Hospital Status

The Georgetown Public Hospital last year failed to meet the world renowned Baby Friendly Hospital status following an assessment by a team from UNICEF, but Public Health Minister George Norton says the hospital is gearing to pass the assessment this year.
Norton had announced last year that six hospitals in Guyana were accredited with the Baby Friendly Hospital status. He had stated that 12 of the 19 hospitals in the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), had signalled their intention to be assessed in order to be accredited.
However, only six of the 12 reached the criteria for accreditation—two of them were previously accredited in 2014. These hospitals, he said, were assessed by the External Assessment Team recruited by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to determine their eligibility to be certified.
Strangely enough, the country’s leading medical institution which delivers thousands of babies each year—Georgetown Public Hospital— had failed to meet the criteria. Norton stated that the ministry was not worried about the situation because the hospital was now equipped with a competent medical staff.
He stated that since the external assessment, which was conducted during the period of February to March 2015, the hospital has been working diligently to address the issue and was aiming to pass the next assessment sometime this year.
When questioned about the criteria that the hospital failed to meet, the minister stated that during the assessment doctors did not allow for mother to infant immediate bonding post-delivery. He said the doctors at the hospital, at that time, were accustomed to waiting a while before giving the baby to the mother.
The Baby Friendly Hospital criteria includes that: every facility providing maternity services and care for new-borns, should have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff; all staff should be trained to implement the policy; help mothers initiate breastfeeding within a half-hour of birth—this step, it states, includes placing the babies in skin-to-skin contact with their mothers immediately following birth for at least an hour; show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants.
Norton stated that the accredited hospitals would have met all of the Global criteria of the BFHI, including the International Code of Marketing of Breast milk substitutes and HIV and infant feeding.
He noted that the accredited hospitals were West Demerara Regional Hospital—which was re-accredited; Davis Memorial Hospital; Mahaicony Cottage Hospital; Lethem Regional Hospital and the Upper Demerara Hospital, which was also re-certified.
Hospitals that were assessed included the Suddie Regional Hospital, Oscar Joseph District Hospital, Georgetown Public Hospital, New Amsterdam Regional Hospital, Skeldon District Hospital, Mahdia Regional Hospital and the Linden Regional Hospital. He stated that even though these hospitals were not accredited, they were tasked to strengthen the identified deficient areas.
He stated that work will continue to ensure that there are Baby Friendly hospitals in all of the Regions. (Kaieteur News)

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