Lagos — There is a cliché that says there is no free lunch in Freetown. However, for expectant mothers and children under-five in Ondo State, this is the best of times as they are enjoying free healthcare. Courtesy of a comprehensive health package underlined by the trail-blazing 'Abiye' philosophy, Governor Olusegun Mimiko has underwritten all medical expenses for them.

With her child cuddled happily and sitting by her bedside at the Mothers' Ward of the Mother and Child Hospital, Oke-Aro, Akure, Mrs. Aina Tomilola exuded inner peace and contentment. As the first mother to be delivered at the freshly built health facility, Tomilola's happiness was not only because she was awaiting the arrival of the chief executive of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko for the formal commissioning of the hospital, but because her family would not pay a dime for her safe delivery. Added to that, like all mothers who would use the facility, she was billed to receive gift items for her baby from the hospital management.

Concerned by an adverse report of the World Bank, which ranked Ondo State as having the worst health indices in the South-west, Mimiko swung into action immediately on assumption of office to stem the tide of the deplorable healthcare delivery in the state. Speaking to journalists after the commissioning of the Mother and Child Hospital, which was part of the activities lined up for his first anniversary in office, Mimiko said such health index would not be acceptable to them. He said the report meant loss of loved ones, battered families and shattered dreams with their attendant adverse impact on the economy and national development. The report, he added, gave them an insight into the kind of challenges in the health sector especially with respect to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

He said health was fundamental to human development and for him, man is at the centre of all his programmes and projects. He said there was no gain saying that a healthy mind is a healthy body and without that, man could not achieve anything. He stated that despite all their contributions to society, the woman is always at the lowest rungs of the societal ladder; therefore, he has found it imperative to uplift their healthcare needs.

Considering where they are coming from, the people were overjoyed on the day of the commissioning of the Mother and Child Hospital. Aged men and women, children and the entire populace converged on the arena to witness the ceremony. With a motley crowd of entertainers and traditional dancers, the people could still not believe that such a state-of-the-art facility fully equipped with modern equipment, could actually be offering free services. This expectation heightened their joy understandably as the governor and all his aides spoken to give the assurance that services offered there would be entirely free to the mothers and children.

In an address at the commissioning, the governor said besides the challenge of decaying physical infrastructure, high rate of youth unemployment, mass poverty and insecurity, which faced them at inception, the health challenges were gargantuan.

"The health sector was particularly plagued with a barrage of challenges ranging from poor implementation of existing health policy, to inadequate manpower, inadequate and overstretched health facilities and insufficient logistic support for efficient health service delivery. The health sector was also characterized by lack of strategic health plan acceptable to stakeholders," Mimiko said.

He noted that it became apparent to them that the strategies adopted over the years were ineffective in addressing or proffering solution to the persistent health needs of the people. These challenges, he stressed, propelled to work assiduously to salvage the neglected health sector and redeem the declining image of their dear state.

He told the gathering that the hospital being commissioned last week Saturday, was started in May last year barely three months after assuming office. "The facility is designed to promote preventive, restorative and rehabilitative healthcare to our women and children. In the 2010 budget, adequate allocation has been made for the construction and equipping of two additional mother and child hospitals while we intend to replicate same in other parts of the state," Mimiko told a cheering audience.

He said having taken the steps towards enhancing quality healthcare for the people; he solicited the full cooperation of the health workers and every citizen of Ondo State to ensure the success of the mother and child hospitals. He expressed profound thanks to the community hosting the project and pleaded with them to see the project as their own and give it adequate protection.

He told the newsmen that women bear the socio-economic burden of the society. Added to this, he added, is the burden of childbearing through which some of them have lost their lives. He said it was a combination of these factors that birthed the 'abiye' philosophy, which takes off from the fact that a pregnant woman in Ondo State is not a statistic.

"We say in Ondo State that every pregnant woman must be reckoned with as an individual. The simple thing about the abiye programme is that, keep tap of all pregnancies, make facilities available to her. At the critical time when she needs intervention, let there be a skilled hand for her. We think this approach would reduce maternal deaths to a very considerable level," the governor said.

He said they have trained paramedics, who have been assigned pregnant women to attend to. The paramedics, he explained, have motorcycles and they are equipped with first aid packs to provide assistance in emergencies and they move around on daily basis to check their patients. The state, Mimiko added, also empowered each of the pregnant women with dedicated mobile phones so that they could reach out to their doctors, paramedics, midwives and even the governor when the need arises. He said he too could pick his phone and call them to find out about their welfare.

In addition to these interventions, the governor stated that they have ordered for tricycle ambulances for the rural communities where transportation is a problem. This is because those that will need surgical intervention or referral to a bigger facility could be easily moved. He said the MCH would be replicated in other parts of the state in order to make them apex referral centers.

"Our goal is in four years, we would have been able to reduce maternal deaths and infant mortality by 75-80 per cent and it is doable," he said.

The governor restated the fact that all the services would be provided free to expectant mothers and infants. He said he meant free and that no pregnant mother would pay for any service including surgeries where necessary. However, he made it known that the bills would be picked at another level because for every free service somebody somewhere must be paying for it.

Also on maintenance, the governor challenged the journalists to visit the facility by this time next year and they would then discover that it will be maintained well. He said the administration places much emphasis on that and has ensured that the qualitatively assembled materials and equipment would be maintained.

Earlier in his welcome address at the commissioning, Dr. Lawrence Adegbemiro, the state commissioner for health, noted that the determination of the government to ensure affordable and qualitative health care for all citizens of the state gave birth to the hospital being commissioned on the occasion. Adegbemiro stated that the well-being of the citizens of the state was paramount to the administration as demonstrated by the laudable projects of Governor Mimiko.

He congratulated the women of the state who are the main beneficiaries of the project. He said the purpose of the Abiye programme launched by the governor was to reduce the maternal and child mortality rate in the state. The previous week, the commissioner noted that seven health centres were commissioned in Owo, Ondo and Odigbo council areas primarily to reduce the problem encountered by the people living in villages accessing health facilities.

He stressed that gone were the days when structures were commissioned without necessary equipment adding: "The mother and child hospital we gathered to commission today is not an empty hospital as it used to be in those days. This hospital has been stocked with world class hospital equipment and furniture in order to enable the hospital take off immediately and function effectively."

He added that the hospital personnel that would work at the MCH were already in place and have been mobilised to serve humanity. He solicited for the cooperation of the pregnant women and mothers who would bring their children for treatment in the hospital to abide by the rules and regulations of the hospital. This way, he added, they would enjoy to the fullest, the packages available for them at the centre.

He said the governor has approved that services ranging from normal delivery to cesarean section and drugs for children under-5 would be free at the hospital. He advised them to take opportunity of this offer to utilize the facilities available well.

Also speaking while conducting journalists round the facilities, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, special adviser to the governor on health, said maintenance and security for the facility are being outsourced in order to ensure efficiency. Adeyanju said the governor, who was a two-time commissioner of health in the state, has made healthcare delivery his top priority.

He said the direct intervention which is novel in Nigeria, created the concept of Mother and Child Hospital to provide specialized medicare free of charge to the highly vulnerable group of pregnant women and children and consequently achieve a zero percent mortality rate for mothers and children under-5. The special adviser maintained that the facility commissioned last week is a pilot that would eventually be replicated in the major towns and cities of the state. He added that the government would strive to ensure that all mothers are enrolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ensure that the free services being offered at the centre is sustained.

Adeyanju stated that there is a 250KVA generator already installed at the facility to ensure electricity supply round the clock at the centre. He said the paediatrics ward has 23 beds decorated with flowers and teddy bears to make children feel at home. The nursery section has 10 bed spaces while the mothers ward is a 100-bed facility.

In his own comments, Dr. Kenneth Akintan, a special adviser on health to the governor, said it was because of the importance attached to health that the government it takes 15 per cent of the state's total budget. Akintan said the government has also created that HIV/AIDS Agency to tackle issues related to the pandemic in the state. He said people living with the virus are also being taken care of especially as it concerns their anti-retroviral drugs.