Bungoma medics decry high neonatal deaths
By Print Reporter, August 28, 2024Health practitioners in Bungoma county have attributed the alarming rate of neonatal deaths in the county to the absence of enough newborn units to cater for the high childbirths.
Dr Dickens Lubanga, a pediatrician at the Bungoma County Referral Hospital (BCRH) revealed there is only one newborn unit serving the whole county.
“It is only at the county referral hospital that you’ll find a newborn unit, which is mostly over utilised, you find that a unit that was meant to hold only 20 newborns is hosting almost 80 at a go,” he told People Daily.
He also lamented the lack of enough pediatricians and nurses stating that currently there are only three serving the entire population both in the public and private facilities.
“Most of this mushrooming facilities in the county lack specialised doctors and nurses to attend to the newborns and only wait until the situations are worse before making referrals and by the time the neonate is attended to the complication has worsened translating to increased new born morality rate,” Lubanga added.
Newborn deaths
According to Lubanga, at least 26 out of every 1,000 newborns die in Bungoma county, a number higher than that recorded in Kenya at large which is 22 out of each 1,000. “The only way to reduce these high numbers is by equipping hospitals with enough needed new born units across the county and also add more child specialists to handle the cases,” he said.
However, the Bungoma County government in partnership with Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET) has recently launched a project dubbed smart start initiative to help in curbing high infant mortality rates in the region.
This initiative is being spearheaded by the first spouses of the lake Region Economic block counties in partnership with KMET and is running in the 14 LREB counties.
Speaking to the media after the launch of the project, Monicah Ogutu (pictured), the Executive Director, said that nurturing care for early childhood development programs is a global initiative spearheaded by the World Health Organization and implemented by member countries, that aims to give special care to children between 0-1000 days in order to improve their development and reduce the hiked number of infant deaths.
“Nurturing care refers to conditions created by public policies, programs and services that enable care givers and communities to ensure children’s good health and nutrition and protect them from threats,” she said.
She stated that the program works under five components namely good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, opportunities for early learning and responsible care giving.
“The initiative also seeks to initiate a wholesome government approach towards investment for nurturing care for early childhood development through a pull approach which allows the government to take leadership that leverages the Lake Region Economic Bloc platform,” said Ogutu.