During the unveiling of the 2022 Annual Operational Plan(AOP) and health fact sheet , the Oyo State Government says that its target is to reduce the State’s infant and neonatal mortality rates by fifty percent come next year.

This was disclosed by the Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olabode Ladipo, where he also explained that the annual operational plan was the Oyo State Ministry of Health’s practical document that guides the health workers in the State to achieve the State Government’s mission to improve the health status and economic advancement of individuals and families in the State through evidence-based approaches.

It is in this document that it was indicated that the infant, neonatal and under-five mortality rates were expected to have reduced from 41 per 1000 live births to 20 per 1000 live births, 30 per 1000 live births to 15 per 1000 live births and from 64 per 1000 live births to 32 per 1000 live births respectively by 2023.

Dr. Ladipo as revealed through the Permanent Secretary of the Oyo State Ministry of Health, Dr. Olusoji Adeyanju, noted that proper planning remains the bedrock of excellent performance in every organization and necessary interventions are already put in place to achieve the indicated 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.”

The Oyo State Coordinator for World Health Organization(WHO), Dr. Zorto Philips also pledged the organization’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, whilst he also commends the State Government on its health services.

Also, the Oyo State Coordinator, US President’s Malaria Initiative for States(PMIs), Dr. Oluwayemisi Ayandipo, while linking the State’s achievement in health delivery to the quality of available health data to inform decisions taken on health interventions, stated that PMIs is to support the State in the development of its malaria-specific annual operational plans and malaria elimination programme.

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