As part of the effort to provide quality care and accessible maternal, newborn and child health interventions across public and private health facilities in the State wife of the Governor of Lagos State, Dr.  Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu has said that the Lagos State government will improve budgetary allocation for maternal, newborn and child health services.

Sanwo-Olu, who disclosed this during the flag-off of 2019 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Week held in Lagos Island Local Government Secretariat  noted that the present administration is poised to improving efforts towards the provision of the user-friendly atmosphere across all health facilities in the State through continuous capacity building of health workers on personal effectiveness and etiquette

“Our plans amongst others include massive and aggressive capacity building of knowledge and skills of our healthcare workers to be able to offer evidenced-based healthcare services to our citizens, renovation and revamping of all Primary Healthcare System in the State to be able to gain public confidence through the provision of high standard healthcare services and improving access to basic screening and prevention of premature deaths through the State Health Scheme”.

“We will continue to provide life-saving commodities and consumables in public health facilities to be able to address emergencies and life-threatening situations as well as the existing human resource challenges and motivation of dedicated health workers”, she said.

The Wife of the Governor added that promoting women empowerment and education for the girl-child as well as promoting adequate nutrition interventions for all citizens of the State, especially nursing and expectant mothers will be prioritised.

Mrs. Sanwo-Olu urged all mothers and caregivers to take advantage of the MNCH week which started Monday, 25th November, 2019 to access all free maternal, newborn and child health services offered in all primary health centres across the State.

According to her, “Services to be rendered free of charge include; routine immunization as well as immunization for defaulters or zero dose cases, Vitamin-A supplements to at least 90% of children between 6-59 months, de-worming of children between the ages of 12 – 59 months, malnutrition screening, counselling of caregivers on Infant and Young Child Feeding and food Demonstration”.

“The pregnant women, nursing mothers and women of childbearing age will also be provided with blood-building drugs and family planning services. There will also be counselling sessions for men and women on adequate nutrition, birth preparedness, healthy-lifestyle, personal hygiene, exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, hand washing, malaria prevention, Tetanus Toxoid and family planning services”, the Wife of the Governor said.

She explained that non-prescriptive family planning commodities as well as informative materials on key household and community practices such as birth preparedness, management of fever, control of diarrhoea, proper waste disposal, adequate complementary feeding, hand washing, malaria prevention, family planning, exclusive breastfeeding amongst others will be distributed during the week.

“To this effect, I wish to lend my voice by appealing to our community, religious and traditional leaders to take this MNCH Week with all the seriousness it deserves. This is because our collective effort is needed to secure our future by preventing the occurrence of deaths of mothers and children from preventable causes”.

“Let us all join hands to ensure that all caregivers, women, nursing mothers, girls and men seize this opportunity by visiting the designated centres to access these free health interventions. All the PHCs will be opened from 8 am to 4 pm daily, while 24-hour services will be ongoing at the flagship PHCs during this laudable Week and even after the Week-long celebration”, Sanwo-Olu said.

Speaking earlier, Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi noted that government has put in place various measures to ensure an effective health care system to tackle the twin issue of maternal and child mortality in the state.

He added that the MNCH week is targeted at improving the health-seeking behaviour of all the citizens of the State by increasing awareness of key household and community practices.

“We have a target to reach, and we have completed the procurement and distribution of materials at the local government and ward level. We will also visit schools, market places so that we can reach as many women and children as possible”, the Commissioner said.

Abayomi urged parents and caregivers to continue to support the State government’s drive to reduce maternal and child deaths by patronizing only accredited health facilities and participating in all child-survival interventions and programmes being carried out by government.

While commending the federal Government for putting together the ‘Saving One Million Lives’ initiative that has also contributed financially towards the success of the programme, the Commissioner advised expectant mothers to visit health facility early enough and subsequently for their family health needs.

The MNCH Week which started on Monday is currently holding in all Primary Health Centres across the State.