Over 600 medical personnel including Doctors, Nurses and other health related workers drawn from all health institutions in Kwara State have been trained on improving the availability and quality of maternal and Newborn Care in the State.
The training, which was a joint exercise by the Well-being Foundation Africa, a Non-Govermental Organization (NGO) of the Wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine , United Kingdom
with sponsorship from Johnson and Johnson, was aimed at exposing the participants to life saving skills.
While declaring the Workshop open at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ilorin, the Founder of the Foundation and Wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, said her foundation in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine started the training in 2015 to refresh the skills of the health workers in the state on modern ways of saving lives.
Mrs. Saraki who was represented on the occasion by a Consultant with the Well-being Foundation, Mrs. Funsho Abdullahi, noted that apart from over 600 health workers that had undergone the training, thousands of health workers had also benefitted from the foundation in-house training exercises to achieve the desire goals of saving lives.
According to her, the participants were drawn from seven local government council areas of the state which include Ilorin West, Ilorin East, Ilorin South, Kaiama, Edu, Offa and Irepodun Local Government Areas of the State pledging that all necessary machineries have been put in motion to extend the training to other local government areas in the state.
She reiterated her determination to continue to seek for funding windows towards ensuring zero maternal and infant maternity in the state.
One of the participants that spoke with The Herald, Dr Nurudeen Mohammed from General hospital, Offa, applauded the wife of the Senate President for the initiative which is targeted at reducing maternal and infant mortality across the state.
Also in her interview with The Herald Newspaper on the sideline of the programme, Mrs. Haliru Bashiru from Kaiama General Hospital gave kudos to the initiator of the programme and expressed confidence that the training would go a long way in improving the skills of the participants.
She however appealed to the organiser of the training to increase the numbers of participants in order for more health workers to benefit.
Meanwhile, the Kwara State Government has reaffirmed its commitment to human capacity building of health workers across the state to enhance their skills in saving lives.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Comrade Ola Adefila gave the assurance in his office on Wednesday while receiving the team of Well-being Foundation Africa and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine who are currently training health personnel in the State at the School of Nursing, Ilorin.
Comrade Adefila said the state government was determined to engage in synergy with relevant organizations and key stakeholders in refreshing the skills of health workers towards ensuring good healthcare delivery system, especially in the area of Maternal and Newborn Mortality.
The Permanent Secretary appreciated the Well-being Foundation Africa, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine for jointly exposing all categories of health personnel across the state to such all important intensive training.
Earlier, the Senior Technical Officer of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Nigeria, Doctor Hauwa Mohammed had disclosed that the training was aimed to improving the capacity building of healthcare workers in emergency situation off. mothers and children.
Doctor Mohammed noted that the Well-being Foundation Africa and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine provided basic emergency safety care equipment for some secondary and tertiary institutions in the state to train health workers.
Also speaking, the Deputy Head of Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health, Doctor Charles Ameh, stressed the need for all the health Professional bodies and relevant stakeholders to scale up the training of all the categories of health personnel in obstetrics health medicine.
He explained that the organization was looking forward to designing a model in synergy with professional bodies where they will be undergoing two years compulsory training on antenatal and postnatal Education programme.
The Founder of the Well-being Foundation Africa and Wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, represented by a Consultant with the Foundation, Mrs. Funsho Abdullah promised to seek funding windows to improve availability and quality maternal and Newborn care as well as expose health workers to life saving skills.
When the team visited the Sobi Specialist Hospital and Adewole Cottage Hospital to inspect the skills equipment donated to the hospital, the Principal Nursing Officer of Sobi Specialist Hospital, Mrs. Bashirat Kamaldeen who also partook in the training, said the training had been useful and helpful in the area of managing any emergency cases in the hospital.
The four-day training exercise which commenced on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2018, would end today, Friday, January 26th, 2018.
