SOME pregnant mothers prefer going to church-run hospitals to deliver their babies than public hospitals, Prof Glen Mola said, The National reports.
Mola, the owner of the Paradise Private hospital blames this on the ill-treatment of the mothers by public health officers.
He told a Emergency Obstetric and New Born Care Needs Assessment workshop recently that there was a decline in the number of supervised births in public hospitals from 60% in the 1970s to 36% last year.
“Health workers in public hospitals are not welcoming and friendly.
“They scold and scream and insult the mothers who are in pain to give birth.
“This kind of approach often drives the mothers away.”
He said this was because many health workers work without supervision causing them to develop unfriendly habits.
Mola said this was also a contributing factor to high maternal mortality rate in PNG apart from the lack of skilled birth attendants and access to proper services.
He said an example was the rural St Michaels Hospital run by the Catholic mission in the Dengoglu area in Chimbu.
Mola said the patients preferred to go there because the health staff were friendly.
He said it was time to re-introduce supervision and teamwork back into the public health system to improve the attitude of health staff.
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