The Federal Government has built a 100-bed Mother and Child Hospital in Ifon, Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State, to address the high prevalence of maternal and child mortalities in Nigeria.Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special Assistant (SSA), to President Muhammadu Buhari on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), made this known on Monday during the inauguration of the hospital in Ifon
.Orelope-Adefulire said that the gesture was part of Buhari’s commitment to improve the healthcare and other sectors as well as life-skills development across the country.According to her, the 17 SDGs, also known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end extreme poverty, safeguard the planet and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity by the year 2030.
She explained that the Nigerian government had remained committed to the attainment of the global agenda, “which also aligns perfectly with the cardinal objectives of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration”.
“In line with its mandate, office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs (OSSAP-SDGs), has continued to implement or support policies and programmes aimed at fast-tracking the achievements of the SDGs in Nigeria.“The 100-bed Mother and Child Centre we are inaugurating today was built and donated to the Ondo State Government by the OSSAP-SDGs.
“This three-floor facility has two operating theatres, recovery rooms, sterilisation room, delivery room, consultation rooms, private and general wards, scanning room, side laboratory rooms, reception area, lounge, nurses room and station, doctors’ call rooms, scrub room and a boardroom.
“The facility also boasts of ultra-modern equipment that will aid the prompt delivery of maternal and childcare services.“These include: patient monitors with ECO2; suction machine double jar; Ultra-scan machines; Oxygen Generating machine; Vacuum Extractor Delivery Set; Anaesthetic Machine and Diathermy Machine.“It also has: an emergency cart with a defibrillator; baby incubators; photo therapy lamps; paediatric ventilators; multi-parameter monitors for mothers and babies; crash cart; Theatre Monitor; defibrillators and fetal doppler,” she said.According to her, similar facilities have been established in Lagos, Kwara, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, Yobe, Benue, Abia, and Kogi States which are complemented by other 80-Bed prototype hospitals established in other states across the country.Orelope-Adefulire said that with COVID -19 pandemic
challenging the heath system, there was urgent need to scale-up investment in the sector and, therefore, “this facility is inaugurated at the right time”.She explained that strategic intervention was directly linked to the achievement of SDG-3 on ‘Quality Health and Well-being for all’ and other cross-cutting SDGs.“Specifically,
this mother and child centre (MCC), aims to address the high prevalence of maternal and child mortalities in Nigeria,” she added.The SSA stressed that the SDGs could not be achieved with stand-alone programmes, adding that projects could be carefully mainstreamed into the policies and plans of the national government.She, therefore, called on major stakeholders in the country to partner government as their corporate social responsibility.
“It is, therefore, imperative that the state government owns these strategic interventions and ensures their sustainability for the benefit of our people.“As we continue to work together to achieve the transformative promise to ‘Leave no one behind’, I would like to call on corporate organisations, philanthropists and foundations to continue to partner the government for this type of initiatives.“We will continue to prioritise programmes and interventions with potential large-scale impact for achieving the SDGs in Nigeria,” she said.Inaugurating the project,
Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who expressed gratitude to the president, said that the hospital would go a long way in attaining good health and wellbeing of the entire community and its environments.While thanking Orelope-Adefulire for making the project a reality, Akeredolu prayed that more of such projects would be brought to the state.“I want to assure you that Ondo State will own this project and sustain it,” the governor said.
