Mr Seyi Tinubu, through his Maternal and Child Health Intervention Scheme, has donated a drug bank for the indigent patients at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
Dr Benson Ayodele-Cole, National Coordinator of the scheme, made this known during the official commissioning of the programme on Friday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the scheme also featured N1,000,000 scholarship grant to the best paediatric resident doctor.
Ayodele-Cole, who represented Seyi Tinubu at the event, said the project, which was initiated out of the love for maternal and child healthcare, aims to relieve the indigent patients who could not pay for the drugs they needed for treatment.
He said that the major objective was to reduce the maternal mortality rate, saying that a lot of mothers and children have lost their lives during delivery due to lack of access to the needed treatment.
He decried that the infant mortality in Nigeria, which as at last year stood at 54.74 deaths per 1000 live births, while the Nigeria maternal mortality rate for 2020 was 1,047 per 100,000 live births.
According to him, Nigeria’s maternal mortality is about the 4th highest in the world, and according to World Health Organisation “nearly 20 per cent of all global maternal deaths happen in Nigeria.”
Ayodele-Cole explained that the scheme, which would be a revolving programme, targets 10,000 indigent patients who would benefit from free drugs and delivery supplies per month.
He added that the scheme would be established in a total of 60 tertiary hospitals in North and South Nigeria in the first Phase.
“The goal of Mr Seyi Tinubu in this Maternal and Child Health Intervention Scheme is to attain and possibly surpass the SDG Goal 3 in Nigeria, on Maternal and Infant Mortality which targets to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by year 2030.
“To this end, the scheme has taken the challenge headlong to support indigent patients who may not be able to afford hospital bills with this revolving scheme for free drugs and free materials for safe delivery.
“In the scheme, 10,000 indigent patients shall benefit from free drugs and delivery supplies per month and this scheme would be established in a total of 60 tertiary hospitals in North and South Nigeria in the first phase.
“Similarly, there is N1,000,000 scholarship grant for resident doctors who are in the final year of their pediatrics residency programme.
“Dr Gabriel Oyeleke, a Senior Registrar in Pediatrics who has distinguished himself on the line of duty in caring for children in this hospital is today awarded a 1,000,000 Naira Scholarship, in Cash,” he said.
