The Kwara State government on Thursday declared zero tolerance for neonatal deaths in the state.
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, speaking through the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Razaq, said strategies were being put in place to ensure that the vision is achieved by upgrading health facilities in the state’s hospitals.
“The government has embarked on facility upgrade, renovation and rehabilitation of primary and secondary health centres, provision of ambulances among others to make the workplace conducive for the healthcare givers,” he stated.
He spoke at the Zonal dissemination seminar 2019 Verbal and Social Autopsy Study in Ilorin, organised by the National Population Commission, NPC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.
According to the governor, construction of roads and bridges were also ongoing to link the rural communities to enable them access healthcare services in the metropolitan and urban areas.
The governor argued that resolving the neonatal mortality rate, required multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach.
In his remarks, the NPC Federal Commissioner for Kwara State, Abdulrazaq Gidado, stressed the need to address the problems of neonatal deaths in the health sector.
He said there could be no tangible planning and development without the provision of accurate and adequate data which is readily available with the population commission.
“Provision of medicaments and health facilities, all depend on accurate data and the NPC has the records needed,” he added.
Gidado said the exercise was the outcome of researches and surveys conducted in 2018 on the mortality rate in the North Central of Nigeria.
