New birth and death notification system rolled-out |16 May 2023
(L to r) Ms Dangkow, Dr Louange and Dr Pugazhendhi during the press conference
The government, through the department of Immigration and Civil status, has rolled out a new updated system on the way births and deaths are notified and registered.
Explaining to the press the new system, Dr Danny Louange said that the system, to be partly administered by the Ministry of Health, is among changes to the Civil Status act 2021 which took effect in June 2022.
He said that it makes provision for Civil Status and the Ministry of Health to be notified on births and deaths that happen in government, private facilities and in the homes.
The notifications to Civil Status are now sent electronically.
Also present at the press conference were the policy analyst, Dr Sanjeev Pugazhendhi and nurse manager at the maternity, Marie-Josée Dangkow.
He said that compared to the past where parents or next of kin were given the birth and death notifications for transaction at the civil status, a soft copy of the notification form will also be sent electronically to the Civil Status from the maternity ward in the case of births and by a medical practitioner in the case of deaths, in addition to the parents or next of kin declaring the birth and death themselves from hand received notifications.
He noted that health staff from government and the private sector have been trained to work on the new notification and registration procedures.
Speaking in relation to birth notification, nurse Dangkow explained that the maternity ward will have only 3 days to electronically notify the Civil Status on birth or still birth (death during labour) which also appear on the birth notification form.
She said parents will be given a hard copy of the birth notification for which they have 30 days to declare their child at Civil Status.
She said that the reason to mail the birth notification to Civil Status is for the birth to be registered and counted in the event that parents do not come to register and which was not the case in the past.
She said that the new form contains a lot more information than the previous one so that the Civil Status can register the child in the event that their parents do not come to register him of her.
She added that given the contact details on the form, the Civil Status will also, within 15 days, send a reminder to the mother to declare the child.
Nurse Dangkow said that after the 30 days if the mother does not come to declare the child, based on legal proceeding and on information on the form, the child will be registered provisionally by the department and this can be amended by the parent later on.
She noted that it is important for parents to go and declare their child at Civil Status within the 30 days’ notice when they do get the birth notification form so that their child will be registered as a Seychellois citizen.
With regard to deaths where parents or next of kin were in the past issued with one death certificate with details about the death and the causes of death, Dr Pugazhendhi said that the procedure has been split into two where only a death notification form will be issued to parents or next of kin while a separate form, the medical certificate on the cause of death issued by a medical practitioner, will be sent electronically to the Civil Status only.
Dr Pugazhendhi said the reason to present the family of the deceased with only a notification form is to prevent the spread of information about the cause of death of the deceased to unnecessary places and people.
He said that the family of a deceased will only be issued with a death certificate at the Civil Status and they will have to go to the doctor (government or private) who was treating the patient in the first place to get a copy of the cause of death.
He noted that they (medical practitioners) have also 24 hours after the death to send the notification report to Civil Status or they will be in default of the law.
It is to be noted that representatives from Civil Status were not present at the press conference.