The health policies and programmes of any government should be informed by the need to
reach the less privileged and people at the grassroots
It might also involve starting a new hospital management paradigm that will involve community participation and give all healthcare
professionals, especially pharmacists, their proper place in the health management system.
Above all, mother and child health should occupy the front burner of any peoples oriented leadership that cares a hoot about the well-being of its teeming populace.
Available records show that in Nigeria, most mothers, infants and children are yet to have any form of access to essential quality healthcare services, mostly at the rural areas, especially when all efforts should be geared towards ending preventable deaths among all women, children and adolescents.
This is heartbreaking, as their well-being determines the health of the next generation and can also help predict future public health challenges for families, communities, and the healthcare system in the Society.
In Abia, Improving the well-being of Abia mothers, infants, and children appears an important public health goal for the present administration, ably led by Governor Okezie Victor Ikpeazu.
Efforts by his administration to address persistent disparities in maternal, infant, and child health have employed a “life course” perspective to health promotion and disease prevention in the State.
With the recent assurance by the Governor, that the Mother and Child Specialist Hospital which is at its final stage of completion will be commissioned and ready for service to Abians soon, shows that his government is mindful of the citizenry and is aimed at improving the health of women, infants and children.
Upon completion, according to available facts, the hospital will be the most comprehensive women’s healthcare institution and the only hospital facility dedicated completely to children since the creation of Abia State.
Facilities such as Laboratory facilities, Radiography, Pharmacy and functional Theatre facilities required to take care of specialist issues concerning children and mothers would be readily available too.
Located opposite Central Police Station, Bende Road Umuahia, the hospital according to Gov. Ikpeazu, who spoke to newsmen shortly after inspecting the facility, expressed satisfaction at the progress of work done so far, said that equipment would soon arrive at the facility.
Meanwhile It was gathered that the state had already taken delivery of two full containers of medical equipment for the hospital which came as a donation from one Dr. Jackson in Denver Colorado, USA as an offshoot of the collaboration between the State Government and Abians in the diaspora.
