Summary:
Oxygen therapy remains largely unavailable for severely ill newborns and children admitted to hospitals, and is a critical gap for the management of patients with COVID-19. This webinar described the oxygen gap that prevents newborns and children with hypoxaemia from accessing critical care, and opportunities to strengthen oxygen systems to improve the quality of care.
Speakers shared practical solutions from Nigeria on strengthening oxygen systems to achieve broad access, and improve the quality of care for newborn and child health. They presented Rwanda's strategy to establish oxygen systems as part of health systems strengthening and resilience building and how it has impacted newborn and child health quality of care and supported COVID-19 preparedness.
The presentations were followed by an ‘Ask the experts’ session. To see the questions and answers, and ask further questions on the this topic, join the community of practice here. The thread on 'Delivering quality essential MNCH services during COVID19: Oxygen therapy for newborns and children' will be open until 6 August.
This session was facilitated by Dr. Anne Detjen, Health Specialist, iCCM/IMCI, UNICEF and Dr. Pavani Ram, Senior Medical Advisor for Child Health, USAID.
This is the fourth webinar in a series on ‘Delivering quality essential maternal, newborn and child health services during COVID-19’. Quality of care experts will share global guidance and country experiences around quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health in the context of COVID-19.
The series is co-hosted by the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and the QoC subgroup of the Child Health Task Force, with the support of UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
The next webinar will be on 3rd September at 1 pm CEST, on Health workers' perspectives, challenges and solutions in delivering essential MNCH services with quality during COVID-19'. See the whole series and register: http://www.qualityofcarenetwork.org/webinar-series2
Photo: UNICEF/UNI337820/Bashir Ahmed Sujan
