Infant mortality: Disconnect between health and family planning directorates

The directors-general of health and family planning have admitted that the two directorates lack coordination without saying whether such lapses contribute to the child mortality rate.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 25 April 2018, 06:52 PM
Updated : 25 April 2018, 09:40 PM

The admission came at a roundtable on child mortality organized by bdnews24.com in association with Unicef at the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Abul Kalam Azad

The internet newspaper’s Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi who moderated the discussion posed the question to two directors-general whether there was lack of coordination between their directorates.

"If you look at your directorate, you will find some weaknesses in coordination," health directorate DG Abul Kalam Azad said in response to a question. "I would not deny that if the operations are huge, there must be some problems in coordination."

"There is a lack of coordination between two directorates," he admitted.

 

Family planning DG Kazi Mustafa Sarwar, however, said such weakness is minimal.

"Whatever success or achievement the Health Directorate has, that came from the joint efforts of the staff from both health and family planning directorates," he added.

"We can eliminate whatever lackings we have," he continued.

Both the DGs said the efforts were on to minimise the differences.

Azad said, "We are trying our level best. We have health workers at the village levels as well. The family planning department also has workers at the grassroots. Starting from the centre, both the directorates are trying to enhance coordination down to the grassroots."

According to him, the community clinics could not carry out caesarean section, but normal delivery could be done there.

"However, we can make the referral. If anyone comes to us for medical attention, we take responsibilities," the DG added.

Sarwar said, "If the community clinic workers reach the field level, our workers help them. The midwives also help them."

The two DGs were then asked whether they sat together to sort out the issues.

The family planning DG said, "We sometimes meet during the ministerial meetings. We discuss the issues we have at hand and how to sort those out."

The health directorate DG said, "We have dedicated sections to sort out those issues."

They also said they issue circulars on coordination matters.