National Telescope national telescope newspaper
By Binta Sanni
Dr. Omar Ibrahim, the Kwara State Saving One Millions Lives Program for Results (SOMLPfR) Program Manager has disclosed that the Federal Government initiative has trained over 440 health workers on integrated maternal-newborn child health.
Speaking at the sidelines of the training on Thursday at Omu-Aran in Irepodun local Government Area of Kwara, Ibrahim stated that the initiative is currently training 40 Health workers from across the 16 LGAs.
He explained that the five days programme was a capacity building for healthcare workers in primary Healthcare.
He stated that this is centred on integrated maternal newborn child health, targeted at reducing the rate of maternal mortality in the state.
According to him, the training will also afford the health workers know-how on helping babies breathe thereby reducing child and maternal mortality rates to the barest minimum in Kwara.
Ibrahim noted that initiatives of the Federal Government started in 2017 in the state but was extended due to outbreak of COVID-19 rounds off.
“As we do not want an increase in a maternal mortality, to achieve this, we needed to have health workers who know the best practices, aside telling them the best thing to do, there is also practical session
“This is not the first training we would be doing, we have done several capacity building since the inception of the programme in 2017.
“We have trained about 400 health workers across the state making it 440 with the ongoing training at Omu Aran,” he said.
Ibrahim further explained that the kind of training given to the health workers is one that could be passed down to other healthcare workers in their various local Government
“This is a Federal Government of Nigeria programme with support from World Bank. Kwara State has been performing well and this is the more reason the state is at the this stage,” he said.
He noted that part of the training includes distribution of medical equipments put in the various facilities to work with across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He therefore advised the participants to make judicious use of the knowledge gained, as soon as they get to their various facilities.
Ibrahim added that the training includes integrated maternal newborn and child health, immunisation, family planning, treatment of children with fever and antenatal among others.
He also appealed to the state government to take ownership of the initiative.
Speaking also, Prof. Adeboye Mohammed, the Director for the Course, noted that at the end of the training there should be more informed hands at the grassroots levels.
He said these health workers would be able to take correct decisions, take care of the new born and be able to refer appropriately.
Adeboye a Consultant Paediatrician at University of Iloriin Teaching Hospital (UITH) said the training is very essential for health workers to be able to manage newborn baby confidently before referral without any damage
He explained that the newborn health management needs competent hands from skilled health personnel for them to live a normal life without any scar that may affect the newborn baby.
Mrs Nurat Ibrahim, who spoke on behalf of participants, said the training was very enlightening and educative, adding that they are being trained on new techniques on child and maternal health.
