Anambra State Governor, Dr. Willie Obiano, has inaugurated the Mother and Child Referral Centre built within the premises of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Awka.
Obiano also inaugurated a dialysis centre, imaging and CT-scan laboratory in the institution at a colourful ceremony yesterday. In his address, the governor said the referral centre was a state-of-the-art pregnancy care, delivery and care of the newborn facility funded by Star Deep Water Petroleum Ltd (a Chevron company).
He also stated that the facilities were part of his administration’s effort to improve public health infrastructure.
The governor, therefore, charged workers and people living in Anambra to embrace the state health insurance scheme to aid their access to enjoying medical care they could ordinarily not afford.
According to him, wealthy members of the state should enroll, as much indigent and old people as they could, so that with as low as N12,000 premium, they could enjoy health services of as much as N5 million.
Speaking at the event, the Chief Medical Director of COOUTH, Dr. Josephat Akabuike, described the Mother and Child Referral Centre as a state-of-the-art ‘hospital complex’, adding that it is fully equipped with a theatre, laboratory and pharmacy.
He lamented that the maternal mortality in Nigeria, which records
814 per 100,000 live births compared to the United States (U.S.), which had 17 per 100,000 live births, is high and unacceptable.
He said: “By this, Nigeria’s maternal mortality rate translates to death of one woman every minute during the process of childbirth. This boils down to the fact that most causes of maternal deaths are preventable.
“This clarion call to make pregnancy and delivery safe, and to protect the lives of newborns, was exactly what Chevron Company and their partners have done for women and children in Anambra.
“The hospital will remain grateful to the company and promise that the facility will be fully utilised to serve its purpose.”
In a remark, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Co-ordinator in Anambra, Dr. Chimuanya Igboekwe, declared that healthcare was a public good, which every government must provide for its citizens.
Follow our socials Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google News.
