Developing Countries: Terminal Illnesses

(asked on 21st January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to his Department's press release entitled, UK will step up efforts to end preventable deaths of mothers, new-born babies and children in the developing world by 2030 published on 19 October 2019, what steps his Department is taking to increase the quality of life for (a) children, (b) new-borns and (c) women living with life-threatening illness where death is not preventable.


Answered by
Andrew Murrison Portrait
Andrew Murrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 27th January 2020

The Secretary of State recently announced that the UK would step up efforts to end preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children by 2030. Core to the UK's Preventable Deaths agenda, is how we can support low income countries to scale up quality health services. This includes the development of national maternal health policies, support for the delivery of services and work to strengthen health systems, the provision of skilled care at birth, emergency obstetric care, and improving access and quality of medicines. We invest at both the country level and through global programmes. An example is our recent £600m commitment to scale up access to a range of existing and new sexual and reproductive health supplies, which has the potential to expand access to misoprostol.

We recognise that not all deaths are preventable. We support countries in their development of national policies and service provision for those with ongoing illnesses, with focus on quality of care and access to medicines.

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