Even as Odisha is set to roll out the India Newborn Action Plan (INAP) for reducing neonatal mortality rate (NMR) in next six months, AIIMS Bhubaneswar has joined hands with the State Government to prepare the medical personnel and healthcare workers for the programme.
The premier institution will train doctors, paramedics, field health workers, ANMs and Ashas in implementation of the programme interventions on the ground. The training programme for district level officials has already commenced and all 30 districts would be covered in next one month.
“AIIMS has taken up the responsibility to get the manpower attuned to the focus and interventions of the new national initiative. At first, a pool of master trainers drawn from district level doctors is being created, who in turn will train others on the field,” Dean Prof Vikas Bhatia said.
The INAP was announced by the Centre in September 2014 with a re-fixed goal of reducing neonatal deaths in India to less than 10 per 1000 births by 2030, five years ahead of the global target. Giving a new direction to the existing programmes, the INAP will focus on neonatal well-being from birth to 28 days with rigorous monitoring and provisioning adequate access to health and nutritional support to newborns.
Neonatal mortality is the major contributor to infant mortality rate (IMR). While there has been significant improvement in IMR rates, particularly reduction in deaths between one month and one year, NMR is still lagging. Odisha is among the States with highest NMR at 37 per 1000 against national average of 28. Similarly, the maternal mortality rate in Odisha stands at 235 against national average of 178 per one lakh live births.
The INAP will cover both newborn and new mother care with six intervention packages as pre-conception and ante-natal care, care during labour and child birth, immediate newborn care, care of healthy newborn, care of small and sick newborn and care beyond survival.
“AIIMS will extend its support and services by not only mentoring and training but also helping the Government to roll out the programme in next six months. Every effort will be made in terms of capacity building, training supervision and mentoring in association with State Health Department and Unicef,” Prof Bhatia said.
The training programme was held in presence of AIIMS Director Professor A.K Mohapatra and Dr.Meena Som of Unicef.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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