the goan I network
PANAJI
The stark difference in child births through caesarean section in Goa’s private healthcare sector as against government hospitals has raised serious ethical questions on whether surgeries in private sector are being recommended for commercial considerations. In statistics that will raise eyebrows, in 2018-19, a whooping 58.58% of mothers in private hospitals gave birth via caesarean, while 32.4% of their counterparts in government hospitals in the State had their babies delivered via surgery. What’s more, the difference in surgeries in private hospitals and government hospitals has been steadily rising.
Information obtained under RTI from the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) breaks down the numbers for us. Of the 10,536 births reported in the Health Management Information System (HMIS), 7,133 mothers in government hospitals had normal deliveries, and 3,430 had caesarean in the year 2018-19. In private hospitals, of the 7,399 births reported, caesarean deliveries overtook normal deliveries with 4,313 caesareans as opposed to 3,045 normal deliveries.
This has been the pattern over several years in Goa now. In the year 2017-18 too, the percentage of caesarean deliveries overtook that of normal births in private hospitals with 4,133 (53.3%) caesareans to 3,581 normal births from the total of 7,749 reported births. In government hospitals, the percentage of caesareans was less with 32.2% (3,589 of 11,122) and normal births was 68% (7,575).
In 2016-17 too, the trend was similar, but with a slightly lower percentage of surgeries in private hospitals i.e. 45.7% (2,950 births of the total 6,448 reported births.) In government hospitals, 30% of mothers gave birth via caesarean.
The trends are in keeping with those in India when it comes to caesarean.
A new study based on data from National Family and Health Survey has shown that there is a significant increase in the rate of caesarean births in India. Other than private hospitals benefiting monetarily from mothers to whom they recommend caesareans,
