Sindh Health Secretary Professor Naushad Shaikh has called upon the NGOs and donors supporting health care programmes to ensure that public welfare schemes should not be duplicated in one or specific parts of the province while several other districts remain absolutely devoid of the same.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop on 'Strategies on Community Based New-born Care' in Pakistan jointly organised by Paediatrics Department, Aga Khan University Hospital, Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and New-borns (PAIMAN) and USAID here on Wednesday evening.
According to him while neonatal as well as infant deaths were owing to a number of contributory factors and there happened to be many NGOs working to combat these, but an urgent need for these was to cover remotest and least developed parts of the province so that benefits of their efforts and interventions could reach to all.
Mentioning that survival of new borns was a particularly critical issue in context of South Asian region where a high percentage of neonates were unable to complete their first month of birth, he said a holistic approach was required to address the situation.
"We also ought to ensure community involvement in our endeavour to combat the scenario," he commented following a presentation made by early speakers comprising seasoned neo-natalogists and paediatrician from India, Nepal and Pakistan.