Rabat Maternity Hospital Under Scrutiny as Newborn Death Rate Soars to 33%

The death rate has exceeded 33%, according to the daily newspaper Al Massae. This is not the first time that the rather high infant mortality rate has led to an investigation. In June 2018, the Ministry of Health had already launched an investigation into this phenomenon to find out the underlying causes of the dysfunctions of the health facility. But the results have not yet been revealed, explains the daily.

In 2017, the Souissi maternity hospital had recorded 196 cases of premature deaths of newborns, compared to 147 in 2016, an increase of 33%. This figure would have decreased by 48% at the Orangers maternity hospital, in the same city, from 39 deaths in 2016 to 20 in 2017.

At the time, the Ministry of Health justified this surge in deaths by failures in the intensive care service. These include delays in the allocation of newborns in distress to intensive care, insufficient places, and a lack of coordination between nurses and doctors.

For its part, the university hospital had responded that "the veracity of the data must be established at the risk of creating a climate of mistrust and questioning the services available in this establishment".