Oyo State government, unveiling its 2022 annual operational plan (AOP) and health fact sheet, says that its target is to reduce its infant and neonatal mortality rates by 50 per cent next year.
Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Olabode Ladipo said the 2022 annual operational plan was the ministry’s practical document meant to guide health workers to achieve the state’s government mission to improve the health status and economic advancement of individuals and families through evidence-based approaches.
The annual operation plan indicated that neonatal mortality, infant mortality and under-five mortality were expected in 2023 to have reduced from 30 per 1000 live births to 15 per 1000 live births, 41 per 1000 live births to 20 per 1000 live births and 64 per 1000 live births to 32 per 1000 live births respectively.
Ladipo, who spoke through the Permanent Secretary, Oyo state Ministry of Health, Dr Olusoji Adeyanju, said proper planning remains the bedrock of excellent performance in every organisation and interventions are already put in place to achieve the targets.
According to him, “it is a document about how to increase the health indexes, using what we have in terms of resources, both human and physical resources in the health sector. For instance, last year we launched our Tomotiya initiative aimed at ensuring that mothers and their babies survive during pregnancy, delivery and after delivery.
“We plan to reduce number of babies that die after delivery by 50 per cent. One of the mechanisms that we have put in place to reduce it is to increase the number of skilled birth attendants that will be available for mothers in labour. That means that whatever care that will be given to the women will commence right from the antenatal period and continue during the time of labour and after delivery.
“Availability of skilled birth attendants ensures that necessary interventions that will ensure the survival of mothers and babies are done. Our skilled birth attendance is about 85.4 per cent and we intend that this should further go up to 91 per cent by 2023.
“We also have the school of community nursing in Oyo, where people are being trained after which they will be sent to the hinterland to ensure they are available to attend to women in labour.”
While commending the state government on its health services, Oyo state coordinator for World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Zorto Philips pledged the organisation’s support to the state’s health priority areas, including routine vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases and ensuring that the state contributes to the one million universal health coverage target.
Dr Oluwayemisi Ayandipo, State coordinator, US President’s Malaria Initiative for States (PMIs), while linking the state’s achievement in health delivery to the quality of available health data to inform decisions taken on health interventions, said PMIs is to support the state in the development of its malaria-specific annual operational plans and malaria elimination programme.
Oyo targets 50 per cent reduction in newborns, children deaths by 2023
