Between January and June, the clinic turned away or referred on 31 women who arrived in labour between 10pm and 6am. Not because there was no room, and not because the cases were complicated, but because there was one midwife on duty and she was already with someone.
Thirty-one is a number we could report as a success rate — 96 per cent of arrivals were seen. Set against 31 women in labour at night, looking for another clinic, it does not read like a success.
What it costs
A third midwife costs GH₵[amount] a year including salary, statutory contributions and the transport allowance that gets her home safely after a night shift. That last item is not incidental: we could not recruit for the role until we added it.
The post is funded for three years by [funder name], with a commitment from the district assembly to absorb it into the public payroll in year four. We do not create posts we cannot see a route to sustaining, because a clinic that gains a midwife and then loses her is worse off than one that never had her.
We do not create posts we cannot see a route to sustaining.
What we will report
From September we will publish the number of night arrivals and the number turned away, every quarter, in the same place. If the number does not fall, we will say so and explain what we think went wrong.
Written by [Author name], Executive Director