Prioritizing Women’s Health : Government Vouchers to Reduce Maternal Mortality.

Pregnant women in the South West Region have been encouraged to register and obtain the health voucher, which the government has put in place to curb maternal mortality as part of the universal health coverage scheme. In this package, women will have to benefit from free antenatal, delivery and post-natal services.

The South West Regional Delegate for Public Health, Dr Eko Eko Filbert said the voucher has come to revolutionize health care delivery, and limit maternal mortality in the region. According to the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, Cameroons maternal mortality ratio as of 2018 was 406 maternal deaths per one hundred thousand live births, while just 69% of births in the country are attended by skilled physicians as reported in 2022.

Dr Eko Eko explained that the health voucher has come to subsidize delivery services and reduce home delivery to the minimum. He observed that many women shy away from delivering in the hospital due to poverty and lack of transportation means which can lead to complications.

With the health voucher, pregnant women are guaranteed of free antenatal care, free delivery, and free post-natal services for both the mother and the baby with just FCFA 6, 000 for the first six weeks after delivery.

The regional delegate further explains that the health voucher package also includes free emergency transportation services for pregnant women.

“We know that many women die because they deliver at home,” Dr Eko Eko said.

He added that they are discouraging this act, by giving a compensation to women who deliver pregnant women at home. The Universal Health Voucher is the fifth package on the Universal Health Coverage, UHC, a scheme that was launched by the government of Cameroon last year, to provide free and highly subsidize healthcare to citizens.

The UHC was instituted in 2017 by president Paul Biya but its implementation started six year later. Packages in the universal health coverage include free HIV services, free TB treatment, free consultations for children aged zero to five years, and free dialysis for kidney patients after a registration fee of FCFA 15,000.

The health voucher can be obtained at various points – the Regional Delegation of Public Health, district medical offices, integrated health centers and subdivisional hospitals. This year, the health voucher has been added as the fifth package on the universal health care and was officially launched in the South West Region by the Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie on August 7. The voucher covers seven out of ten regions of the country.

Emmanuela Siy

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