Since 2011 until 2013, maternal mortality rate (MMR) in Jeneponto District had fluctuated. The MMR in 2011 was not more than 61 deaths per 100.000 births which is pretty good. However, the rate increased almost three times to 169 deaths in 2012. Nevertheless, according to the data published by Jeneponto Health Department, the MMR was again decreased to 82 in the next year.
The success of Jeneponto government and its people in decreasing the MMR needs to be appreciated, yet, both government and the civil society cannot let go of their responsibility in providing qualified health care service for pregnant women.
As a civil society organization who is also responsible for fulfilling pregnant women’s right to qualified health care service, collaborating with Jeneponto Health Department, Center for Regional Information and Studies (PATTIRO) and PATTIRO Jeka developed an SMS-based health care complaint service application named SMS Lontara (Health Information Service for Turatea People). “By using SMS as our application platform, we hope that everyone will be able to utilize this application to deliver their complaints regarding the health care service they get”, said PATTIRO Jeka Program Coordinator Ramlawati during SMS Lontara launching in the hall of Jeneponto Health Department office, Friday, October 9, 2015.
On the same occasion, the Director of PATTIRO Jeka, Suryani Hajar, explained that the development of this application is aimed to encourage the civil society to take part in improving their own health status and the health care service for pregnant women. “The purpose of creating this application is to push the people to participate actively in improving the health care service for pregnant women, particularly in Turatea Sub District”, said Surayani.
SMS Lontara has four main menus. They are data menu, emergency menu, info menu, and complaint menu. “We create these four menus so that the people and health workers in Turatea can give some contribution to improving the quality of the health care service. We also hope that this can help the government to make the right decisions faster”, Suryani added.
Head of Jeneponto Health Department Syafruddin Nurdin considered the application PATTIRO and PATTIRO Jeka developed smart and innovative. “SMS Lontara, this instrument, gives us wisdom in communicating inside the technology-based health information system. We hope this can provide access to the people to get the information related to health care service as an effort to make the health care service quality better”, Syafruddin explained.
Suryani said, the launching of SMS Lontara represents the high awareness of both the government and its people to promote the realization of healthy Jeneponto as their vision. “By sending an SMS to 082 393 003 115, the people have helped to improve the health care service for pregnant women in Jeneponto as well as improve the social accountability level of the local government”, Suryani asserted.
SMS Lontara launching event was attended by Head of Jeneponto Health Department Syafruddin Nurdin and staffs, Jeneponto Health Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MFS), heads of community health center, health workers, as well as the media.
