By Henry Edefo
The Edo State Government through its Ministry of Health has collaborated with the John Hopkins Programme for International Education in Gynaecology and Obstetrics (JHPIEGO) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in organising a workshop to train front-line health workers on improving the quality of maternal and child healthcare in the State.
While appreciating USAID on behalf of the State Government, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Obehi Akoria, admonished the participants to see the training as a sure way of building their capacity for effective service delivery in their places of primary assignments, adding that it is a rare privilege for USAID to bring the workshop to Benin City.
Prof. Akoria appealed to the partners to help monitor the effectiveness of the workshop in order to achieve the desired goal in maternal and child healthcare delivery system, and build the knowledge and skills of participants on how to conduct quality improvement projects in well selected learning sites, using the Quality Improvement (QI) process in the State.
Maternal mortality rate in Nigeria is 512 per 100,000 lives, infant mortality rate is 67 per 1000 live Births, neonatal mortality rate is 38 per 1000 live Births and under-5 mortality rate is 132 per 1,000 live Birth (NDHS 2018).
According to the training schedule, the workshop was organised to educate participants on the World Health Organisation (WHO) quality of care, the Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) framework for improving quality care in health facility and to build skills of the State and LGA managers to oversee start-up and continuous support of high-level of care across clinical mentoring and peer-to-peer learning.
Also speaking, a Scientific Officer I of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA), Mr. Aminu Selisu Adamu, stated that the quality of care is very crucial in the healthcare delivery system. He said their objective is to work with the State in taking ownership and prioritising Maternal and Child healthcare delivery in the State.
Dr. Victor Fatimehin, a public health physician, while presenting a lecture on “Strategy on Quality Improvement of Care and Quality of Care,” stated that to achieve improvement of quality healthcare in the State, there will always be a need for workshops like this for continuous training of healthcare workers for effective service delivery.
