An audit of some health facilities and equipment for neonatal resuscitation in south-south Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Neonatal Mortality rates continue to be high in spite of the general decline in under-5 mortality rates in Nigeria. Available evidence has shown that the availability of a skilled birth attendant and equipment for basic neonatal resuscitation is necessary for the prevention of early neonatal death which accounts for majority of neonatal mortality. This audit was, therefore, carried out to identify the quantity and quality of equipment available for basic neonatal resuscitation in some health facilities in southern Nigeria.
Methods: This was a cross sectional questionnaire based study. Data was obtained from health care workers from 26 health facilities who attended Neonatal resuscitation training workshops from June 2010 to November 2012. Information obtained included type of health facility, obstetric and paediatric services provided and human and material resources available for neonatal resuscitation.
Results: Twenty-three (88.5%) were government owned facilities while three (11.5%) were private facilities. Of the government owned facilities four were primary health facilities (17.3%), 18 were secondary (78.4%), while only one (4.3%) was a tertiary health facility. Most of the health facilities had annual deliveries, annual newborn resuscitation and birth asphyxiated babies in the 1-500 range. All the Paediatricians were in the tertiary health facility. Only three (11.5%) facilities had bag and mask and radiant warmer, respectively, while only five (19.2%) had radiant warmers.
Conclusion: Equipment for basic neonatal resuscitation is grossly deficient in some health facilities in southern Nigeria. Therefore, urgent efforts should be made by the stakeholders involved in the delivery of child health services to provide basic resuscitation equipment to health facilities. This will contribute to a reduction in the neonatal mortality rate in Nigeria.

Keywords: Neonatal, Resuscitation,Basic, Resuscitation, Equipment.