Date: 2012-05-14

The Kwara State government has rehabilitated and upgraded 15 primary health care centres with the assistance of the World Bank Assisted Programme.

The state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Kayode Issa, announced this at the beginning of Family Week in the state in Ilorin.

According to him, the 15 hospitals are only awaiting equipment and staffng through the Health System Development Project II (HSDPII).

The commissioner said government had embarked on the rehabilitation of primary health care centres in all the local government areas.

He urged the three tiers of government to pay more attention to family planning as one of the pillars of reducing maternal mortality.

Issa said "the goal of preventing the death of women during child birth needs urgent attention, which has made most countries to be committed to reducing maternal mortality by 75 per cent by 2015."

The commissioner said that family planning was key to the achievement of MDGs 4, 5 and 6, on the reduction of high mortality rate of women and children.

According to him, family planning improves maternal health and combats HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Issa said the collaboration between the Kwara government and Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) had helped the state to improve its health systems.

He stressed that the collaboration assisted in providing quality and affordable health care services for people in the state.Issa explained  that a budget line had been introduced for family planning activities adding that it would be improved upon in subsequent budgeting.

He said that the state government had commenced the recruitment of medical personnel like doctors, nurses and pharmacists  to ensure that women and children were adequately catered for.

Earlier, the Coordinator of NURHI, Mallam Aliyu Sodiq, urged the three tiers of government to allocate more money to family health care.

He said there was need to expand the service in the local government areas and build the capacity of health workers.

The Family Planning Coordinator in the state, Mrs Agnes Ajiboye, said the collaboration between the state and NURHI had reduced the morbidity and mortality rate.