By Auwal Mohammed
Gombe (Nigeria) — Participants of a town hall meeting in Gombe, northeast Nigeria, say the rising figures of maternal and child deaths in the State is unacceptable, calling on government to direct adequate resources to saving lives of mothers and children.
The meeting under the Review of Maternal Newborn-Child Health (RMNCH) programme featured various speakers who lamented the absence of releasing money meant for Free Maternal and Child Health services, a programme the state willingly introduced to address such deaths.
The meeting gathered that State Government had stopped funding the free services in all its health facilities since first quarter of 2015 — releases have not been forth-coming, despite budgetary allocations and approvals.
The sum of N100 million has been earmarked for spending on the free programme in each quarter.
While speaking at the meeting Director of Nursing Services in the state Ministry of health, Saidu Adamu warned against molestation of midwives by patients who feel that antenatal service in Government facilities are free. “This always occur whenever patients are given lists of drugs and other requirements by the midwives to be brought to the hospital.”
The town-hall meeting also frowned at vested interests of highly placed individuals in the State who influence postings or divert postings of their relatives from the rural areas to cities even when there is high demand of health workers especially nurses and midwives in the rural areas of the State.
The town-hall meeting brought together civil society organizations, the media, traditional and religious leaders, officials of the State Ministry of Health, as well as Save the Children International.