A grandmother he never met served as part of the inspiration for his work in public healthcare, and tonight Director of Women's Health Dr. Adesh Sirjusingh receives the Chaconia Medal Gold for that work.
He shares his thoughts with TV6 News on that achievement, and explains why he never migrated.
00:00Dr. Adesh Serju Singh was appointed Director of Women's Health at the Ministry of Health in 2017
00:06and has worked on improving the standards of maternal and newborn care in the public health care system.
00:12While up to 2015, maternal mortality in the country was at 65 per every 100,000 live births,
00:19by 2017 it dropped below 30 per 100,000 live births.
00:24The trend continued, with 16 maternal deaths being reported from between the period 2020 and 2024.
00:33As he receives the nation's second highest award, the Shikonia Medal, gold, Dr. Serju Singh expresses gratitude.
00:41I guess working in the public health care environment and the public service, usually we all say we hardly ever get taxed.
00:49So this is really a reward of the service that we offer, especially in the field of obstetrics and gynecology and newborn health.
00:59He cites the hard work of his team and says the work that is being done will continue to bear fruit in the years to come.
01:06What we have done, especially in the last few years, is to make sure to prevent all what's called preventable maternal deaths.
01:15Things that systems, we discovered things that we were doing right, so we built on that.
01:22And therefore, we tried to prevent these deaths from happening.
01:25And that's really one of the greatest success.
01:28And of course, we've done a lot of work through all the infrastructure, resources, staffing.
01:33We have cooperation. I think diplomacy is one of my strong points.
01:38I have gotten all the teams, all the different stakeholders, including the RHAs, to work together rather than in silos, which was happening before.
01:48Dr. Serju Singh calls it a recipe for success, and he believes the lessons learned, if applied to other departments, will all go well for the public health care system.
01:57Although he has amassed a wealth of experience through his 35 years in the sector, which can lead to international opportunities, Dr. Serju Singh has remained in this country.
02:08He tells TV6 News that he is a trini to the bone.
02:12Asked what propelled him to stay, he recalls growing up in a village in the late 60s into the 70s, free from race, religion, and other boundaries that cause human divisiveness.
02:23We all lived together, supported each other. And that inculcated these values. Of course, my parents, they get support. They're both deceased. It's a bittersweet day today to remember them. I recently lost my mum a couple months ago.
02:39I'm sorry to hear that.
02:41Yes, but all of that would have contributed. I have a strong support growing up.
02:45And he felt compelled to put it back into society, relaying a story that he was told by his mother.
02:51My grandmother would have died at the Sangri Grandi Hospital shortly after childbirth.
02:57And that story stuck with me, even as a little child.
03:02And funny enough, I ended up working back in that same ward as a specialist doctor in Obzangaini, preventing death.
03:09So a full circle came around.
03:11As to what he's working on now, Dr. Serju Singh tells us,
03:14They're tackling gender-based and intimate partner violence problems by way of electronic records,
03:21continuing the accreditation of hospitals for breastfeeding,
03:24and reducing the transmission of STDs, such as HIV and syphilis, from mothers to babies.
03:30We are also working on what's called the elimination of cervical cancer.
03:34There's a project for about the year 23rd.
03:36We are hoping to virtually eliminate cervical cancer as a medical problem.
Be the first to comment