Call for more nurses at baby ICUs

Star: KOTA KINABALU: More nurses are needed at neonatal intensive care units (NICU) at government hospitals to reduce morbidity and infection rates.
Perinatal Society of Malaysia president Dr Irene Cheah said the average ratio of nurses to patients at most NICUs was 1:4; while the ideal figure should be 1:1.
“About 10,000 babies a year require neonatal care,” she said at the opening of the society’s 16th annual congress here on Friday.
Noting that the nurse to patient ratio at many adult ICUs was already at the 1:1 standard, Dr Cheah hoped that the Health Mi­­nistry as well as principal matrons would look into implementing the 1:1 nursing ratio Nicus.
“Good neonatal nursing care is such an important factor in reducing morbidity and infection rates in NICUs,” she said, adding that the nurses needed to improve their skills as well.
Dr Cheah said more neonatal nursing training centres were needed as well, as some potential trainees were discouraged when such centres were too far away from home.
She said that while the neonatal mortality rate was 3.7 per 1,000 live births in 2006; there was however great variance among the various states with Selangor recording a low of 2.2, while among the highest were Sabah with 5.2 and Terengganu with 5.7.
Dr Cheah said that to improve the situation the Government should look at re-adopting successful maternal and child health service programmes carried out in the 1970s.
“These strategies can be selectively applied to the urban poor and deprived rural areas to bring down stillbirth rates in these areas,” she added.