Lagos State Government has restated its commitment to the provision of high-impact reproductive and child health care services as part of efforts geared towards Maternal and Child Mortality reduction in the State.
Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye, who disclosed this at the unveiling of the Saving One Million Lives Programme for result (SOMLPforR) implementation and closure report at the Providence Hotel, Ikeja, noted that the State Government is exploring the SOMLforR programme and other maternal and child mortality reduction strategies to improve health outcomes.
Ogboye explained that the Saving One Million Lives programme, an initiative launched by the Federal Government to improve health outcomes and halt avoidable maternal and child deaths, represents a bold attempt to improve maternal and child health indices not only in Lagos but nationwide.
He added the initiative focuses on six important pillars of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health which include improving Maternal Newborn and Child Health, improving routine immunisation coverage and achieving polio eradication, elimination of Mother-to-Child transmission of HIV, Scaling up access to essential medicines and commodities, Malaria Control and improving child nutrition.
The Permanent Secretary explained further that the Lagos State SOMLPforR programme implementation and closure report gives a whiff of the management of primary healthcare in Lagos and how the activities have sustained some of the best indices recorded. He noted that the implementation and closure report also describe the interrelationship between the SOMLpforR programme and the activities of the Lagos State Government regarding maternal and child health.
He added that the report underscores the advancement of the health system in Lagos and its capacity towards structuring sustainable health for Lagosians.
Ogboye averred that the report also highlights the synergy of the programme implementation units in the collaborative effort of improving maternal and child health in Lagos. However, he assured that the recommendations made in the report will go a long way to drive more agile responsive and innovative primary health care services in the state.
Earlier in his address, the former National Programmes Manager for Saving One Million Lives Programme for Result, Dr. Ibrahim Abubakar Kana congratulated Lagos State Government for the milestone achievement recorded in the State health sector through the programme.
He stated that the unveiling of the programme implementation and closure report showed that the state is action and result oriented with a sustainable plan to make good initiatives thrive.
Programme lead, Lagos State SOMLPforR, Dr Mazeedat Erinosho, remarked that SOMLPforR has achieved far-reaching success in the last four years, attributing the success largely due to the dynamic structure, system and enabling processes of the State government.
Erinosho appreciated the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye as well as the Permanent Secretary, Primary Health Care Board, Dr Ibrahim Mustapha for their unwavering support of the success of the Saving One Million Lives Programme for Result in the state.
She asserted that the SOMLPforR team will continue to work assiduously in the provision of sustainable healthcare delivery services in the State which is in line with the Health and Environment mandate of the Present administration.
