More maternity hospitals needed

PADANG, West Sumatra: The head of the West Sumatra office of the Ministry of Health, Firdaus Bahauddin, said Saturday that the province still lacks hundreds of maternity clinics.

Firdaus said people in remote villages still have poor access to the clinics' health services.

"We now have 1,001 maternity clinics, yet we often receive complaints from midwives who have to go a great distance to help women in labor," he told reporters.

He said that West Sumatra now has 2,157 midwives serving 2,059 villages.

"We are planning to establish another 526 clinics this year to meet the demand in remote areas," he said. He added the local administration also needed donations to provide the clinics with proper equipment.

The administration has allocated Rp 3.5 million (US$1,460) for the construction of each maternity clinic. "But we do not have the money to provide the centers with the necessary equipment," he said. (32/imn)