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Obj challenges experts on
maternal health
President Olusegun Obasanjo has challenged gynaecologists and obstetricians
in the country to set up an audit system for maternal deaths in health
facilities.
Obasanjo gave the challenge in Abuja at the opening of the 7th International
Conference of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON).
Represented by the Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, Obasanjo said
that the audit system became necessary because of the high maternal death
rate in the country.
Nigeria's maternal deaths rate, adjudged to be the highest in the world,
stands at 800 per 100,000 live births.
Obasanjo said that an audit system ``will enable us avoid repeating the
mistakes of the past and send a clear signal that people will be held
responsible for professional negligence or misconduct''.
He expressed the hope that the road map expected from the conference would
provide informed data that would assist in the formulation and
implementation of policies and programmes on child and maternal health care
delivery.
Obasanjo said that safe pregnancy and delivery of healthy babies constituted
important issues on grounds that both categories of people represented a
vital segment of the nation's human capital.
He told the medical practitioners that they ``must do everything
professionally possible to ensure that mortality is greatly reduced''.
He said the government had shown strong commitment in ensuring that high
maternal death was reduced through increased budgetary allocation to the
health sector.
In 2006, Obasanjo said that N21 billion of the N100 billion debt relief
savings was allocated to health, while N15 billion would be devoted to the
sector in 2007.
He said that part of the funding was used to improve facilities for
obstetrics and gynaecology, as well as capacity building for trained birth
attendants and other medical personnel.
In his speech, the President of SOGON, Dr John Okaro, said the society had
reached an agreement with the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists of the UK to improve the quality of service of their
counterparts in Nigeria.
He prayed for the repose of the souls of two members of SOGON, Prof. Rotimi
Ola and Debora Hagai, who died in the ADC plane crash of Oct. 29.
Meanwhile, the society admitted 17 new members, who took their oaths at the
opening ceremony.
A keynote address on how to improve maternal health care in Nigeria was
delivered by the Vice President of Ipas, Mary Luke, who is on a visit to
Nigeria from the organisation's headquarters in the U.S.
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER
26 2006