Health department panel to review infant mortality in National Capital

The Delhi government’s health department has formed a committee to review child deaths in the Capital. The aim is to bring down the infant mortality rate in the city, which currently is 18 per thousand live births.

The committee will monitor the cause of infant mortality in all government hospitals to understand the pattern. According to the sample registration system, the neonatal mortality rate every year in Delhi is 12 per thousand live births.

“This means 12 children per thousand are dying within one month of their birth. The government has planned to work on child deaths and want to identify the causes of such deaths,” said a senior Delhi government official.

The department is planning to bring down the infant mortality rate to 10 per thousand live births by the end of 2018. According to experts, the various causes of infant death need to be identified.

Many deaths occur in the hospitals, for which the department will have a hospital-based review with help from senior doctors who have been assigned to work on the projects. For deaths which are community-based, health workers such as Anganwadi workers, Asha workers and ANMs have been pooled in.

“More than 50-60 percent of such deaths which are preventable, …read more