National perinatal care master plan stratified model of obstetric and newborn care provision

Executive Summary

The focus of the global health agenda and worldwide efforts remains to achieve the best possible outcomes for mothers and babies in all countries. These efforts have been catalyzed by the third goal of the 2030 sustainable development which affirms countries' commitment to ensuring healthy lives and the promotion of well-being and survival for mothers and babies.
The Republic of North Macedonia declared strategic priority of the country government for the next years to strengthen the health system and to fast-track progress towards improving maternal and newborn health outcomes and to accelerate the path toward achieving ambitious targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
The Perinatal Care Master Plan is the conclusion of a combined effort by the Macedonian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization in line with strategic priority. It provides consolidated set of analysis of current organization of perinatal care system across full spectrum of service delivery and prospective recommendations on improving maternal and neonatal health outcomes through establishment of risk-appropriate care, rationalization and optimization of maternal and newborn service provision with strong quality assurance system and respective health information support.
The Master Plan concentrates at key strategic areas which must be tackled in order to achieve the set goals:
• services delivery (includes service organization by levels of care, infrastructure, equipment, human resources, transport, and referral system)
• quality of care and health information systems.

The Master Plan also encompasses the detailed Implementation Plan, which outlines the practical plan for transforming the recommended model into reality by converting them into gradual and realistic steps, whilst taking into account budgetary constraints, required resources, professional capacity, and other factors potentially affecting (accelerating or hampering) implementation process.