The Lagos State Primary Health Care Board and its partners, the United Nations Population Fund and Project Aisha, on Friday, inaugurated a state sub-committee for Community-based Maternal, Perinatal and Child Death Surveillance and Response at the grassroots.
The inauguration took place on Friday during a Stakeholders engagement held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry Conference Center on Nurudeen Olowopopo in Ikeja.
Members of the inaugurated sub-committee include senior government officials, religious leaders, youth leaders, market women and community leaders, development partners, healthcare associations and healthcare workers both at the State and Local Government levels.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Olukemi Ogunyemi, explained that it has become imperative to involve members of the community, particularly at the grassroots level in the reduction of maternal and child mortality in the state.
According to her, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is interested in the well-being of pregnant women and children in the state and urged the sub-committee members to discharge their duties and ensure that the trust reposed in them by the state government for the assignment is justified.
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Ibrahim Mustafa, while speaking, identified the importance of sensitizing the stakeholders on modalities for the roll-out of Community-based Maternal Perinatal and Child Death Surveillance and Response in Lagos.
He emphasised that concerned persons must understand their roles towards ensuring the success of the programme’s pilot, which is billed to take off in Ifako Ijaiye Local Government.
The Permanent Secretary drew the attention of the stakeholders to the fact that the maternal and child mortality rates in the country is still high and called on all stakeholders to understand their roles and carry out routine monitoring, fact-finding missions, and make contributions that would help the government to make informed decisions.
The State Emergency Maternal and Child Health Intervention Center Programme Manager from the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Veronica Iwayemi, while educating the participants, pointed out the importance of community ownership and participation, and the onus on community-based healthcare workers both private and public; community, religious and traditional leaders, as well as other stakeholders in tackling the reduction of maternal and child mortality in Lagos State.
She explained that the C- MPCDSR programme is a model that ensures maternal, perinatal and child deaths are identified, documented and audited regardless of the place of death, these include deaths that occurred at home and/or in transit to a health facility.
Iwayemi said the implementation of the programme would help the state to get accurate data on maternal, perinatal and child deaths in the community, adding that this would, in turn, help the government to identify and address the probable causes of modifiable (preventive) factors and proffer long-lasting solutions to reducing the incidences of maternal and child deaths.
The Chairman of the State Steering Committee on MPDSR, Dr. Donald Imosemi emphasized that the programme is not meant to cast blame on individuals but is strictly meant to find out the root cause of maternal, perinatal and child mortality and make policies that would improve the situation.
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