Lagos to provide free health services for under-five children, mothers

The Lagos State Government says it will be offering free health services to all under-five children, nursing mothers, pregnant women, all women and men within the reproductive age group.

The government said the services will be provided in commemoration of 2020 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week from October 5-9.

Speaking during the inauguration of the week on Friday, wife of the governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, urged all pregnant women and caregivers to take advantage of the free health services to be provided across all the Primary Healthcare Centres and designated sites in the state.

In a press statement made available to PUNCH HealthWise and signed by the Director, Public Affairs at the state health ministry Tunbosun Ogunbanwo, Dr. Sanwo-Olu said the week will be of high-impact but cost-effective health interventions to all under-five children, nursing mothers, pregnant women, all women and men within the reproductive age group.

According to her, the services to be rendered during the weeklong celebration include routine immunisation as well as immunisation for defaulters or zero dose cases, Vitamin A supplementation for at least 70 percent of children between six and 59 months, de-worming of 70 percent children between the ages of 12 to 59 months, malnutrition screening for children of ages six to 59 months, 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. 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 and malaria prevention

“We shall also be distributing non-prescriptive family planning commodities as well as informative materials on key household and community practices such as personal hygiene, control of diarrhoea, proper waste disposal, adequate complementary feeding, hand washing, malaria prevention, family planning, and exclusive breastfeeding”, Sanwo-Olu said.

The first lady also cautioned citizens especially pregnant women, nursing mothers and teenagers against patronizing quacks for their health care needs.

Frowning at the rate at which pregnant women patronise quacks who claim to be traditional birth attendants for their ante-natal and post-natal care needs, Sanwo-Olu said it is sad that a lot of our expectant mothers still patronize quacks who claim to be Traditional Birth Attendants, while illegally practicing orthodox medicine.

“These quacks do nothing but to add sorrow to our people by killing their newborns, pregnant teenage girls, under-five children and even expectant mothers who patronise them for treatment, delivery and illegal termination of pregnancies,” she said.

She however appealed to citizens, community leaders and members of the Lagos State Traditional Medicine Board to intensify effort in exposing those involved in quackery practices in the community.

She stressed that the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration will leave no stone unturned especially in embarking on interventions that will promote health and provide good quality of care that is accessible to all citizens.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi noted that the main objective of the week is to improve the health-seeking behaviour of the citizens through the improvement of key household and community practices which will catapult the state towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 3 which are “No Hunger” and “Good Health” respectively.

Abayomi who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry Of Health, Dr. Olusegun Ogboye noted that all health facilities will be opened for consultation and services.

He added that services at PHCs can be accessed from 8am to 2pm daily stressing that all flagship PHCs will be opened for 24 hours during and after the week-long celebration.

“Our health facilities will be opened for consultation and we should allow all under-five children, mothers, adolescent boys and girls, as well as pregnant women visit any of our primary health facilities, to enjoy all the services that will be given free of charge during the week,” he said.