Kathmandu, June 15 -- Nearly 75 percent of health facilities providing special newborn care services even lack medicines required for serious complications, according to a latest assessment by the Ministry of Health and Food Safety.

The report titled "'Functionality Assessment of Special Newborn Care Units for Improving Quality of Services for Care of Small and Sick Newborns at Health Facility in Nepal", prepared by the ministry, shows that multiple medicines, including phenobarbitone, required for seizure control in newborns, were available only in a quarter of health facilities-state-run hospitals, medical colleges, as well as private ones.

Similarly, dobutamine, a medicine used in intensive care units, was available only in 42 percen...