Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tacuarembo (Agenzia Fides) - Access to technology, swift service, sound local systems, economic-financial decentralisation, are key elements for a National Health System. These elements exist at Tacuarembo Hospital.
This exemplary health centre in Latin America, with an efficient healthcare network has succeeded in reducing the infant mortality rate from 23% to 7.3% in 10 years; raising the percentage of mothers who breastfeed their child until 6 months from 20% to 85% in 10 years; creating an advanced brain-surgical service.
The hospital works on the basis of complementarity with public services and with the private sector, where what counts is not to earn money but to improve community health, and it uses international cooperation to reach those most in need.
With the help of a local dairy the hospital opened its own Maternal Milk Bank. This bank, the first inside a hospital, exists thanks to the generosity of local mothers who supply the milk in the appropriate conditions, guaranteeing underweight new born infants a good chance of living.
In this regional hospital a staff of 300 cares also for hundreds of people who attend 70 rural and urban clinics. The department registered an infant mortality rate of less than 10 children to every 1000 born alive in 2006.
In 1997 UNICEF and the Pan America Healthcare Organisation OPS named the hospital 1st ‘Friend of the Child' for the results obtained with regard to breastfeeding. In 1998 Tacuarembó was chosen by OPS and WHO the country's 1st "health community". In 2003 the maternity department was awarded an international prize for developing a programme of early pregnancy detection in rural areas. In 2006 it was the first public hospital to receive the National Quality Award. (AP) (17/9/2007 Agenzia Fides; Righe:329; Parole:29)
