Reports of poor care, lack of supplies and a high rate of baby deaths are part of the routine at the Nossa Senhora de Nazareth Maternal and Child Hospital, which according to the Public Prosecutor's Office recorded 17 deaths per thousand births last year. This is a 70 per cent increase on the previous year, while the national average is 12 deaths per 1,000 births. In June 2021, the Roraima government closed the maternity hospital to carry out renovation and expansion work on the building and transferred the services to temporary facilities. The work was scheduled to last six months, but completion was delayed. This is why the state has repeatedly extended the rental contract for the canvas maternity ward, which costs one million two hundred thousand reais from the public coffers. The maternity hospital also serves the indigenous population, refugees from Venezuela and immigrants from Guyana, as well as critically ill patients from private hospitals that don't have a neonatal unit. The Public Prosecutor's Office is demanding that the Roraima government expand the service and build another maternity hospital. The state health secretary says that the maternity hospital will be handed over to the population in March.

Source: Amazon Agency