MHMS rolls out training on Antenatal Care Guidelines

The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) is rolling out training on the updated Antenatal Care (ANC) guideline for doctors and nurses across the country. This week second cohort of around 20 doctors and nurses within the Honiara City Council (HCC) have undertaken the two days training on the guideline with two more similar trainings for other HCC nurses remaining.

Facilitated by MHMS’s Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child Adolescents Health Division (RMNACH) team with support from WHO, training involves presentations, role-plays, group work and discussions as well as practical sessions. With the completion of training, participants will be able to have an enhanced capacity to provide supportive advice to pregnant mothers regarding antenatal health, provide curative services, and educate women regarding their own health and so forth.

 “The implementation of the guideline will see our women across the country effectively supported to remain healthy, thus will aid the health of their unborn babies. It will provide support and guidance to pregnant woman and her partner to help them in their transition to parenthood. Therefore, it is a holistic approach encompassing both care, education and prevention”, explained MHMS Permanent Secretary Mrs. McNeil.

She stated that the development and roll out of the guideline in itself is a milestone in the overall efforts of the Ministry to achieve one of the four key result areas of the National Health Strategic Plan 2016-2020.

“The development and roll out of the ANC guideline is a milestone as it directly contributes towards the Solomon Islands National Health Strategic Plan key result area number 3; Improve Service Quality”,

“With this a sincere thanks to WHO for the support which includes the technical guidance in the development and finalization of the guide. I would also like to acknowledge the Ministry’s RMNACH team for rolling out training for all relevant clinical and health workers across the country. All that we are doing today will go a long way in the preservation and enhancement of the health of our mothers and children, the future of our country”, explained Mrs McNeil.

The ANC guideline has five types of interventions, nutritional interventions, maternal and foetal assessment, preventive measures, interventions for common physiological symptoms and health system interventions to improve utilization and quality of ANC and is in line with the new World Health Organization guidelines for antenatal care.

The ANC guideline was developed by the MHMS with support and technical guidance from WHO and was launched in September. Following the launch, the Ministry is now embarking on rolling out training of the guide to doctors and nurses across the country.

Since its launch, trainings on the ANC guideline have rolled out to Central Islands, Western and Choiseul provinces and this week for Honiara City Council. 110 nurses including doctors have participated in the ANC training so far. In the coming weeks training for 57 more nurses and doctors in Malaita province will be held.

Roll out to remaining provinces will continue next year.

• Press Release