1st January, 2020
Wife of Lagos State Governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday urged pregnant and nursing mothers to embrace healthy lifestyle choices to protect their children from avoidable illnesses that can lead to unwanted situations.
Speaking during the annual celebration of the first baby of the year held separately at General Hospitals in Ijede, Agbowa, Ketu-Ejirin and Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, Sanwo-Olu said it was important for people, especially mothers to give due priority to the health and welfare of their children to keep them healthy and in turn help to grow healthy residents.
According to her, “The New Year always brings with it Hope. Hope that the year will be full of accomplishments and fulfillments; hope that the year will be better than the one before; hope that the coming months will bring to fruition our earnest expectations and the achievement of our heart’s desires. And, it is interesting to note that these are also the events that come with the birth of a new child in a family and in a community.
“The birth of the child is significant as it symbolizes the assurance that our heritage and life force is carried on to the next generation. As with a lot of cultures, not just in Yoruba Land but across the world, the birth of a child brings good fortune to a society. But we must recognize that these events do not happen by chance.
“Just as the birth of a healthy baby requires that the mother takes steps to ensure that she lives a healthy life whilst pregnant and gets skilled care during labour and delivery, we must also play our part to ensure that we live the kind of life that will promote our own welfare and the well-being of our society.”
She said the event was not just about celebrating new life but also to seek opportunities to make a difference in the lives of the people who need assistance, saying that the State Government had been doing just that by implementing initiatives and projects to scale up healthcare delivery.
Listing some of the projects so far carried out by the present administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the First Lady said: “As part of our efforts, we have strengthened the Health Sector with the commissioning and opening of new Maternal and Child Centres (MCC) at Alimosho And Eti-Osa areas of the state to complement the existing ones, with provision of Neonatal Care Units, equipment and resources to some of our State Hospitals to enhance the quality of maternal and child care services in our great State. And we are poised to do more this year.”
While commending the efforts of members of the health family in the State, the First Lady said the successes so far recorded especially the commencement of the Lagos State Health Scheme were gratifying.
“I wish to commend the immense effort of the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi and his team for the expansion of healthcare facilities and services, continuing infrastructural upgrade; provision of relevant equipment as well as Staff capacity development engendered towards an efficient and effective service delivery and improvement in level of customer satisfaction as targeted by Service Charter initiatives of the State Government.
“Let me also seize this opportunity to express my profound gratitude to all philanthropists, Baby-friendly firms, Non-governmental organizations and Civil Society Groups involved in one form of partnership or the other with the State Government through the Ministry of Health and urge others out there to collaborate and partner with the State Government as there are more services/projects available for adoption and support,” she said.
Also speaking, Abayomi assured that the State Government would intensify efforts to invest massively in healthcare delivery in 2020, and as well implement the digitization of health records in line with the Smart City Initiative.
He said: “Mr Governor has health as one of his top priorities and anytime at our Cabinet meeting, the emphasis is always on improving the infrastructure and with this trip here today, it will further help to look at the infrastructure; to look at the state of affairs; to look at the population density so that they can help to formulate our plans and strategies in 2020.
“We have got a lot of space to expand our infrastructure. So, our engineers and designers will be coming to look at how we can expand your facilities to take care of the plan for Universal Health Coverage.
“The Governor is also driving a digital platform as part of the Smart City Initiative and I am sure health is right there in the priority and so we would be piloting a digital e-health platform that many of our hospitals will be part of the pilot initiative.”
The Commissioner said the State Government was also aware of the shortage of Doctors, revealing that a major welfare plan for Doctors, Nurses and all medical health personnel was underway.
“This is a plan that we would be discussing in Cabinet to ensure that we retain out medical personnel so that when we expand this facility to meet the needs of the environment, we would have medical personnel to do the job,” Abayomi said.
At Ijede, the first baby of the year 2020 was born at 12:01am to Mr. and Mrs. Oluwabukola Agede weighing 2kg, while at Agbowa, the first baby was at 12:07am to Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester Agbor, weighing 3.1Kg. At Ketu-Ejirin General Hospital, the first baby was born at 1:40am to Mr. and Mrs Folake Kazem weighing 3kg, while at Lagos Island Maternity Hospital, the first baby was born at 12:09am to the family of Mr. and Mrs. Momoh weighing 2.6kg.