The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, confirmed on Friday that the FCT Administration has procured life-saving drugs for 248 health facilities spread across the six area councils of the Territory.
He stated this at the flag-off ceremony of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week held at the Maitama General Hospital in Abuja.
Mohammed, who was represented by the Honourable Minister of State for FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide, said the life-saving drugs would be distributed free to the health facilities in the area councils.
He listed the drugs as albendazole, anti-malaria, fesolate, folic acid, antibiotics and oral rehydration salts, among others.
The minister said: “The FCTA will no doubt continue to take advantage of this opportunity to further strengthen actions and measures that will adequately address the state of health care delivery in the Territory. We are moving away from the stand alone vertical campaigns to a more integrated approach, which will be adopted during the week.
“In the recent past, the FCT Administration has embarked on programmes that will positively impact on the lives of women and children. These programmes include free antenatal care, free under 5, and distribution of long lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets to households.”
Reinforcing the seriousness attached by FCTA to health care, he affirmed that the Territory was free of wild polio virus in 2011, the first time in over 10 years.
He identified the top priority of FCTA as the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and success of the Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda.
Also speaking at the forum, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, advocated compulsory health insurance for every Nigerian.
“Our distinguished members of the National Assembly have to make national health insurance mandatory. This is the only way to make health care affordable and accessible for millions of Nigerians and also achieve universal health care coverage,” he noted.
He admitted that the problems of skilled personnel, ignorance, distance from health facilities and affordability were reasons many Nigerians fail to access health services.
He, however, noted that the government was addressing the problems through massive investment in health sector and upgrading of health facilities.
The maternal, newborn and child health week is an approach aimed at delivering 12 integrated package of interventions such as antenatal care, vitamin A, postnatal care, new born care, hand-washing soap/ashes, routine immunization, nutrition screening, exclusive breast feeding, treated mosquito net, family planning/child spacing, birth registration, and health education.