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.
03:42Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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