Health stakeholders raise alarm over increase in neonatal deaths in Bauchi

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3 years ago

Stakeholders in the health sector of Bauchi State have raised alarm over the high raising rate of neonatal death in health facilities calling on the concerned health authorities to immediately act to check the tide.

The stakeholders who met on Tuesday during the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Integrated Health Programme (IHP) Bauchi Quarterly Review meeting (FY22 Quarter 4 Pause and Reflect session) expressed shock that in the month of August 2022, the General Hospital, Alkaleri alone recorded 12 neonatal deaths a report that is alarming.

The stakeholders identified irregular visits to health facilities by pregnant women for antenatal and postnatal checks as the major problem leading to the rising cases of deaths.

They also identified incomplete treatment of malaria and diarrhoea in children as other causes of the development calling for urgent action by the State Ministry of Health as well as the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) in the state and other health-related agencies.

According to them, though the statistics seemed alarming, they agreed that it is an indication that data collation and transmission to the appropriate data agencies has positively improved in the state due to activities and support from international development partners including the USAID IHP.

The stakeholders also posited that the development has exposed the inadequacies such as lack of manpower and increased demand while supply has decreased in most of the health facilities across the state.

They, therefore, urged the state government to urgently rise up to the occasion by doing everything humanly and technically possible to improve the situation in order to ensure that people particularly in the rural areas get unhindered access to quality healthcare delivery services.

All the partner agencies made presentations on the progress made so far in the fourth quarter of the operations of USAID IHP in the state with the view of planning for the next quarter.

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