Guyana Chronicle
May 23, 2001

THE Advisory Board on Medical Termination of Pregnancy has recommended that steps be taken to encourage practitioners to comply with the law in reporting the incidence of `termination of pregnancy', Chief Medical Officer, Dr Rudolph Cummings has said.

It has also praised the quality of data available for analysis and said it sees this as a great achievement considering that abortions had just recently been an outlawed practice, Cummings reported in a statement.

He said these recommendations and observations were made in the Advisory Board's report for the year ending December 31, 1999, which was submitted to the Health Ministry.

According to Cummings, it has indicated that there should be an amendment to the law, which currently restricts the right of the patient and practitioner to choose the method of termination in the first eight weeks of pregnancy.

He said the board feels more needs to be done to promote the use of vacuum aspirations as the method of choice for surgical termination.

Cummings noted that currently only 14 per cent of reported terminations are done by this method.

The board has also suggested that more can be done to promote the use of medical offices for early termination instead of hospitals.

It has also indicated that the quality of counselling in facilities providing services needs to be improved.

Cummings said the board has stressed that counselling should be treated as a specialised discipline and be placed in the hands of the non-physician professionals.

The Ministry of Health has received commendations for its support to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) trying to foster the development of those skills among health professionals, he said.

It has seen as positive the reduction in complications from abortions, Cummings added.

The Chief Medical Officer noted that this in itself is a positive benefit to overall maternal health.

The board has also chided the public facilities for not reporting on abortion complications which the hospitals have been treating.

The law requires even spontaneous abortions to be reported, Cummings said.

In addition, the board renewed the call for termination services to be made available at public institutions.

It is urging the Ministry of Health to take on fully the provision of contraceptives to the country as the NGO community no longer seems to be able to shoulder this responsibility.

It feels that ample access to contraceptives will reduce the need for terminations.

Cummings said the Advisory Board has also praised the role of the Health Ministry's Statistical Unit for the professional job done in compiling the data.

It has stated that its functions can be enhanced if it is provided with better administrative support from the Ministry of Health.

According to Cummings, the Minister of Health has noted the findings and recommendations and has indicated that the Ministry of Health will proceed to make adjustments to the law and to more effectively enforce the provisions of the law.

The Ministry of Health is determined that the benefits that it had expected to accrue from the law would now be optimised, Cummings said.