By Jayvee Vallejera
A team of medical experts from the Philippines will be heading to the Federated States of Micronesia in April to hold a series of training as part of an agreement to help lower the number of infants and women who die during childbirth in FSM.
Secretary Teodoro J. Herbosa of the Philippines’ Department of Health said he will be going with a team from the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Medical Center when they go to the FSM—specifically to the state of Chuuk—in April as part of a memorandum of agreement he signed with FSM to help reduce infant and maternal mortality rates in the Pacific country.
Herbosa said the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Medical Center is one of the largest mother-and-child hospitals in the Philippines and has extensive experience in maternal deliveries.
“We are scheduled to leave [Manila] in the first week of April to visit Chuuk," he said. "We will be bringing experts…and finding out how we can improve and lower the infant and maternal mortality rates [there]. We will try to see the problem and find out how we can help.”
As is sometimes the case, he said, a problem cannot be solved until it is seen firsthand.
“You can already see high-risk [factors]. When you see signs of high risk, then you can prepare. By the time they will deliver, now you can actually airlift them or move them to the place that is safe for them,” Herbosa said.
He compared this to some situations in the Philippines when Indigenous people who live in mountainous or remote areas are brought to halfway houses when they are nearing their due dates so they will have easier access to expert medical care. In case of complications and the patient needs to undergo a caesarian section, she can be immediately attended to.
The long, and often difficult, travel time to specialty centers is a common cause of maternal mortalities, Herbosa said.
“We have a similar experience in the Philippines in terms of delivering in remote areas,” he said.
Herbosa hopes to bring this insight, among others, to FSM when he and the DOH team head for Chuuk in April.
Herbosa and Secretary Marcus Samo of the FSM Department of Health and Social Affairs signed the MOU on the sidelines of the Conference on Philippine-Pacific Partnership on Sustainable Health Workforce for Health Security held Nov. 27 to 29, 2024, in Makati City, the Philippines.
The MOU outlines a partnership in which the Philippine government will deploy specialized visiting medical teams to the FSM, starting with obstetrics and gynecology specialists.
The teams will provide training to FSM medical staff, with the FSM paying for transportation and accommodation costs.
The Philippine team from the health department will also be doing assessments and evaluations and then making recommendations to FSM. “That is the gist of the memorandum of understanding,” Herbosa said.
He said the health department might also explore the possibility of training FSM health personnel in Philippine health facilities.
According to the World Health Organization, FSM has a maternal mortality rate of 65.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. Specific data for Chuuk State was not immediately available.
Herbosa said the Chuuk state reportedly has high maternal mortality, hence it will be the focus of their initial visit to that country.
As part of the agreement, the FSM Department of Health and Social Affairs will also identify other areas where medical specialization is needed, and the Philippines’ health agency will source and dispatch the appropriate medical teams there.
Herbosa said the Philippines, with its central location, the presence of UN agencies and reputation for producing and exporting skilled health professionals, could play an outsize role in training medical personnel in nearby countries in the Pacific.
He sees this initiative as a great way to stem the outflow of Filipino health workers who are being siphoned off to meet the healthcare needs of other countries.
The shared approach to addressing the shortage of skilled health workers in the region was underscored by the outcome statement of the conference itself.
Participants recognized that without an adequate number of health professionals equipped with the right skills, competence and morale, the Pacific region would continue to face significant health security challenges.
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