Date: 2019-10-13

Kwara state government in collaboration with Saving One Million Lives for Result (SOML-R) programme has embarked on training of about 400 primary health care workers to reduce the prevalence of maternal and child mortality in local government areas of the state.

Speaking at a training centre in Omu Aran, Irepodun local government area of the state, the Programme Manager of the SOML-R, Dr Ibrahim Omar, said that the programme is targeted at mothers and children, especially those under five years.

Dr Omar, who said that the training addressed management of fever, pneumonia, post haemorrhage and malaria, added that it made health workers to identify danger signs in the target population in order to reduce maternal mortality.

"The essence of the programme is to ensure we have a reduction in maternal and child morbidity and mortality. The programme is targeted at maternal and child health. The training is a continuous training which was started in April. The target is to train between 320 to 400 primary health care workers.

"The primary health care is important to the people. The health care workers need to have an understanding. What they need to do when it comes to common ailments that concern the target population. It's not that they don't know that before, but it will be a follow-up and for best practices. We trained them on it so that when they go back they need to apply the skills", he said.

Meanwhile, primary healthcare workers in the state have called on the state government to equip health facilities with necessary equipment in each local government areas of the state to motivate the health officials.

Speaking during the training programme on integrated maternal, newborn and child health, the health workers said that equipped health facilities would complement knowledge acquired from the training programme.

Mrs Asmau Saka Apalando from Ilorin West local government, Agbaji Health Centre and Mrs Adejobi Oluwakemi from Isin local government area said that," We all are from primary healthcare sector. We are local government health workers. We thank the government for paying the counterpart fund for partnering with the donors. But we want the health facility to be equipped with the necessary equipment and other things that would motivate the workers because now that we are knowledgeable it remains what to work with. If those things to work with are present at the facility and we that are to work with those instruments are knowledgeable, then the people there have no problem.

"I want to also use this opportunity to beg the government because we that are here have not yet been given our 10 per cent consolidated health salary structure that we were promised. The local government health workers talked with the previous government and we agreed that this 10 per cent out of the 50 per cent remaining would be paid across board. But to our dismay, only the state health workers were being paid for almost one and half years now. Our state counterparts have been receiving that 10 per cent COHED while the local government were left behind. We attended the same school and this is giving us discouragement.