Doctors to visit remote areas to train local health providers

In an initiative aimed at bringing down neo-natal deaths, the government has decided to dispatch about 500 doctors to rural areas to train local health providers in checking high mortality rate.

In India, 10 lakh newborn babies do not survive for the first month of their birth each year, and out of them 74% die within one week of delivery, mostly due to lack of training for common neo-natal problems in rural medical assistants.

The ministry for health and family welfare has trained about 500 doctors, who will visit different states and give training to medical officers, nurses and mid-wifes under the 'Navjaat Shishu Suraksha Karyakram' in an attempt to lower the infant mortality ratio from 53 per 1,000 birth to 30.

This, they hope, will help reduce the deaths within one week of birth by 30% - a 2012 target. 

"In our country, mainly in states like UP, Bihar and Rajasthan many newborns die because medical assistants in rural areas do not have adequate training and facilities to deal with common problems -- birth asphyxia (respiratory problem in babies after birth), cold, infection and difficulty in breast feeding," joint secretary of health ministry, Amit Mohan Prasad told PTI.

Under this programme, four doctors (2 paediatricians and 2 gynaecologists) from every district are being skilled to address birth asphyxia and other causes of mortality.