Over 40 anaesthesiologists in Ghana and other West African countries have received medical training to provide safe anesthesiological care for paediatrics in the sub-region.

According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the mortality rate for children under five in Ghana stood at 44 per 1,000 live births in 2021.

The three-day medical capacity workshop is aimed at facilitating the reduction of the pediatric mortality rate which is already seeing a gradual decline locally and globally.

Pediatric perioperative mortality rates peaked during the last two decades with developing countries recording 10.7 to 15.9 per 10,000 anaesthetics – (insert link: Anesthesia-related mortality in pediatric patients: a systematic review - PMC).

Despite a gradual reduction recorded in recent times, the worrying numbers were partly attributed to low expertise in anesthesiological care.

The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists gave participants the essential knowledge and skills to deliver vigilant, competent and safe anaesthesia to patients, even in very low-resource settings.  

The training with support from Smile Train Africa – a cleft-focused organisation – incorporated training to create a sustainable training model to be embedded in the national health system.

Vice President of Smile Train Africa, Nkeiruka Obi says the training is to ensure safe surgical care for not only cleft children but every infant scheduled for surgery.

"This workshop builds capacities for surgeries, safe care with surveillance management and with competent and focus, this is going to provide safe care for all kids,” she said.

The course covered anaesthesia for common elective and emergency conditions in children, pain management, fluid resuscitation, newborn and paediatric life support and paediatric trauma management.

The three-day pediatric care training harnessed a combination of lectures, low-tech simulation, discussions and role-play.

Course Director, Dr Adele Elizabeth King says the training would help the health practitioners to easily identify sick children and administer quality healthcare to them.

"We covered a whole lecture when the patients are about going through anaesthesia. So how taught them how to assess a child, and when to know if the child is ready for surgery?

"This would help them tell when a child is ready for surgery or not. One of the important skills we gave them was how to manage the baby's airways. We are giving them skills to be able to treat children effectively,” she said.

The 40 participating anaesthesiologists were mainly sourced from health facilities in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gambia.

They indicated that the training came at an opportune time to help them recall similar pediatric care education.

“The number of children going under surgery is going up. Children are a special grow of patients they are not like adults. This course comes in handy because we’ve gotten to revise and practice some of the child airway management skills,” Dr Rockson Dorkey, a participant, said

Meanwhile, the first West African Cleft Centre at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital is at a 90% completion level.