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NIGERIA


a patient who has not been cured of his or her complaint. If, for any reason you cannot continue to attend a patient who has consulted you, you have the obligation to transfer the patient to another doctor of equal or greater skill than yourself. Doctors who abandon their patients because of strike action are likely to be found guilty of misconduct if they were tried by the Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal. However, I have not heard of anyone reporting any striking doctor to the Medical and Dental Council on grounds that a patient suffered distress or death as a result of a strike. Ethically, doctors on strike should still run emergency services to ensure that no one dies or suffers permanent damage as a result of their withdrawal of service. They can stop attending new non-emergency cases, but must continue fully caring


News in brief


2012 National Safe Motherhood Day Seminar As part of activities to mark the 2012 National Safe Motherhood Day, the Center for Development and Population Activities, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, held a 1day seminar on April 23 entitled ‘Promoting Safe Motherhood through Community-based Interventions’. In attendance were members of the National Reproductive Health partnership including development partners, professional health associations, the media, and officials from the State Ministries of Health (SMOH) and select Ward Development Committee (WDC) members from Bauchi and Sokoto states. The event also involved the active participation of officials of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs (FMOWA), the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Millennium Development Goals (OSS/MDGs). The event was made possible with generous funding from the Molly Gingrinch Foundation, the George Shields Foundation, and the Fidelity Bank PLC, through which the Centre for Development and Population Activities, Nigeria (CEDPA/Nigeria) implemented the ‘Promoting Misoprostol for the Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage’ project. During the seminar, Dr Clara Ijembi (Ahmadu Bello


University, Zaria) explained that first-line utrotonics, used in the current management of post-partum hemorrhage in Nigeria, are in injection form, are sensitive to light and temperature, require administration in a facility, and require assistance at birth by a trained/ skilled healthcare provider. She emphasised that not all women can benefit from this current approach and that current statistics indicate a national average of 65/39 deliveries at home against health facilities with huge variances in regions, such as 87/16 in North-East and


2 Africa Health Nigeria Felix Obi, Co-Editor, Africa Health (Nigeria)


Dr Clara Ijembi addresses the Safe Motherhood Day seminar


July 2012


for all in-patients and discharge them only when healed. Even if they offended the doctor, he cannot do less.


Such fine behaviour does not work in uncivilised societies. Nigerian doctors argue that Nigerian governments understand only the language of strikes, and even for that they are hard of hearing! Every privilege they or any other group have won has been through strikes. Frequent and prolonged strikes in the education and health sectors lend credence to such arguments. However, if doctors still think they are civilised, they must avoid the temptation of extremism by protecting the weak and the vulnerable during their quarrels with their employers. Are the professional associations in health mere trade unions? Good question! Shima Gyoh for the Editorial Team


92/10 in North West parts of Nigeria. The goal of the seminar was to ignite and focus action, particularly at all levels of government, toward putting in place policies that promote the roll-out of misoprostrol as an effective, low-cost intervention for the prevention of post-partum hemorrhage at the community level. The strategy was to engage the federal government of Nigeria and the state governments of Sokoto and Bauchi, states that are the focus of the Targeted States for High Impact Project (TSHIP) project – CEDPA is also involved in implementation – in interactive discussions as part of activities marking the 2012 National Safe Motherhood Day (NSMD). The presentation on Community use of Misoprostol for the Prevention of Post-Partum Hemorrhage: A Continuing Success Story by Dr Clara Ejembi ignited spirited discussions on the subject, leading to government’s public pronouncement that the guidelines are soon to be circulated on community use of misoprostol. CEDPA conducted a post-seminar advocacy orientation session using the FMOH-CEDPA Advocacy Kit on the use of misoprostol for the treatment and management of post-partum hemorrhage for the WDCs, the TSHIP and CEDPA-TSHIP staff, and the Sokoto and Bauchi SMOH officials that participated at


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