A group, Save the Children International, Nigeria, and GlaxoSmithKline partnership, through Integrated and Sustained Childhood Pneumonia and Infectious Disease Reduction in Nigeria, INSPIRING, project have announced the donation of medical equipment, instruments and consumables worth over one hundred million naira.

The equipment include thirty public health facilities in Ikorodu, Lagos State and thirty-five health facilities in Jigawa State.

The donation includes basic medical equipment such as oxygen analysers, weighing scales, BP apparatus, stethoscopes, respiratory timers, infrared thermometers, pulse oximeters, cold chain equipment such as refrigerators and vaccine carriers; and nutrition equipment and consumables including cooking gas and food items.

In addition, it donated Infection Prevention and Control commodities, including, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, disinfectants, disposal gloves, masks and many others.

The donation is made in response to the health facilities assessment conducted by Save the Children International in Ikorodu in Lagos and Kiyawa LGA in Jigawa.

It also aims at addressing the gaps found during a recent Infection Prevention and Control post training supervision conducted in SCI supported health care facilities.

Therefore, this donation will further enhance the efforts of the Lagos and Jigawa state governments toward improving the quality of healthcare service delivery in the states.

“Healthcare facilities should be ready to provide quality services to their patients, especially children affected by pneumonia and other childhood diseases.

But this cannot be achieved if health providers lack access to the tools and resources they need to save lives.

Country Director, Save the Children International Nigeria, Mercy Gichuhi, says Save the Children is not only concerned about availability and capacity of healthcare providers, but also with the tools they need to provide quality services.

She said evidences suggest that high-quality services improve health outcomes, saying they must all work together to improve health outcomes, especially for children under five to have their right to survive to be fulfilled.

Managing Director of GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria, GSK,
Kunle Oyelana, said experiences from the global management of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that they all must support initiatives that will enhance better healthcare systems and improve the wellbeing of the people.

According to Oyelana, as the world gradually eases most of the Covid-19 lock downs, it has become clearer that we all must support efforts of the government at both the local and national levels to ensure the community gets better healthcare delivery systems that would improve their lives.

While receiving the items on behalf of the Jigawa State government, Permanent Secretary and Acting Commissioner of Health, Dr. Salisu Mu’azu appreciated Save the Children and the GSK for serving the under-served.

According to him, We all know pneumonia causes a lot of mortalities among children, but unfortunately all programs in the past tends to forget about pneumonia, saying this program has been supporting the facilities in the last two years and it has improved the quality of lives of people in Jigawa state.

Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Ibrahim Mustafa while receiving the donations said government was not taking the donation for granted as it would further enhance efforts toward primary healthcare system strengthening in Ikorodu LGA.

He thanked Save the Children and GSK for being valuable partners in enhancing the capacity of primary healthcare facilities.

Chief of Party INSPIRING Project, Save the Children International Nigeria,

Dr. Adamu Isah, said the INSPIRING project is making bold statements at every level of the health system, from community capacity strengthening to health quality improvement and policy environment for sustainable health improvement for children under the age of five in both states.

He said they were grateful to the governments of Lagos and Jigawa states and indeed at the National level through the Federal Ministry of Health and National Primary Healthcare Development Agency for providing the leadership.

This donation is another demonstration of Save the Children International’s commitment to contribute towards an accelerated reduction in child death from pneumonia and other preventable infectious diseases in Nigeria.”

The GSK and SCI partnership through the INSPIRING project provide a unique opportunity to test approaches that work in ending child deaths.

With existing vaccines and treatment options, almost all child deaths can be prevented. Unfortunately, many children continue to die each year due to pneumonia, which remains the single biggest infectious killer of children under the age of five worldwide.

Children from poor communities, who are most exposed to risk factors, least likely to have access to vaccination and effective healthcare are most affected.

Save the Children International calls on the governments of Lagos and Jigawa states to accelerate efforts toward the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through the implementation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), and ensure equitable access to healthcare for all children, irrespective of where they live.

Access to medical oxygen remains a major challenge in the fight against pneumonia and we call on the government to urgently adopt the National Medical Oxygen Policy and deliberately invest in the provision and maintenance of oxygen systems across all relevant health facilities.