Nakuru medical staff trained to tackle maternal deaths head-on

Nakuru County is targeting a two-thirds reduction in maternal deaths, after equipping critical medical staff with advanced surgical skills to manage life-threatening delivery complications better.

The initiative brought together medical officers, floor nurses, theatre nurses, anesthetists, and other key personnel from PGH, Naivasha, Bahati, and Molo sub-county hospitals for an intensive Obstetrics Safe Surgery program, aimed at improving response times and reducing preventable harm during childbirth.

Dr. James Waweru, the Medical Superintendent at NCTRH, says the program is designed to sharpen diagnostic skills for imminent delivery emergencies, where timing can mean the difference between life and death.

“Most maternal deaths happen because intervention comes too late,” he explains. “The focus here is on timely diagnosis- if you detect complications even five minutes too late, the outcome could be tragic.”

While the core of the training focuses on cesarean and other surgical procedures, it also emphasizes teamwork and coordination in the operating room.

Many complications during childbirth happen because of poor surgical skills or a lack of proper support.

In the past, there have been worrying cases reported at the Margaret Kenyatta Mother baby wing in PGH alleging negligence, where children and mothers giving birth lost their lives.

The programme teaches staff how to prioritize urgent cases, assist more effectively during operations, and speak up when something isn’t done correctly.

It also trains them to monitor how long procedures take and call for help if delays arise.

Dr. Waweru adds that through various partners, there will also be the provision of digital learning infrastructure to various public hospitals.

Cameras are being installed in operating theatres, allowing surgeries to be live-streamed to teaching rooms and recorded for later review.

“These recordings aren’t just for trainee doctors to learn certain skills,” says Dr. Waweru. “Additionally, they help teams reflect on what went right or wrong in a surgery. We can now objectively assess how long a procedure took and whether decisions were timely.”

The pilot is focused on Naivasha and Nakuru due to their high maternity caseloads, with plans to cascade the skills through internal training sessions at each hospital’s skills lab.

“We are giving it up to a month to allow for other staff to have learnt the skills. Currently, we have improved our staffing contracts and are assured of the longevity of our staff. We can train them knowing they’ll be around long enough to make a difference,” notes Dr. Waweru.

The training was supported by the Johns Hopkins Programme for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics (Jhpiego) and facilitated by experts from the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and AIC Kijabe Hospital.