Child mortality rate down in Sindh: CM

The Sindh Government with focused efforts on children's health has successfully brought a drastic reduction in child mortality rate from 104 to 46 per 1000 live births over a period of five years, said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah. The Chief Minister said that these numbers were mentioned in a The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) supported survey - 202.

This was said on Friday while he was talking to media after attending a programme of ChildLife Foundation organised to celebrate 100,000 telemedicine consultations in Sindh at Civil Hospital. The programme was attended by Secretary Health Zulfiqar Shah, Childlife CEO Dr Ahson Rabani and others. The CM said that his government has focused on children's health and achieved a reduction in child mortality rate.

"It is a big success of our child health programmes, launched through public private partnership," he said. He said that in 2018, Economist Intelligence Unit rated Sindh as 6th best in partnerships in Asia. He recalled that his government's partnership with Childlife Foundation started in 2010 with the objective of improving children's emergency care.

"By 2018 free emergency service was established in five government hospitals of Karachi and now no child in the city is more than 30 minutes away from 24/7 free emergency services," Murad said. The CM said that nine Children emergency care were established in hospitals of Karachi, Hyderabad, Benazirabad, Larkana and Sukkur in 2019 where more than 900,000 children were being treated annually.

Murad said that our partnership with Childlife Foundation has now translated into establishment of Telemedicine Satellite Centres to improve service at District Headquarter (DHQ) hospitals or Tehsil Headquarter (THQ) hospitals as 2/3rd of our population lives outside of major cities. "In 2020 Telemedicine Service was extended to all districts of the province and from December 2022 it will further be extended to all THQs," he said.

Murad Ali Shah said that the 100,000 telemedicine consultations milestone has been achieved. "The telemedicine system avoids visits to major cities, saves critical time to treatment and a huge financial burden on parents," he said. While answering questions from media, the CM said that the PTI government had failed to strengthen the national economy.

He said that the PTI leaders had no vision to bring the economy on the right track. Earlier, the CM visited the control room of the telemedicine and witnessed the telemedicine procedure. He said that once fibre optic cable laid in rural areas, the entire province will be connected through telemedicine systems.