NAN-H-4
Consumables
By Vivian Ihechu
Lagos, Nov. 28, 2017 (NAN) The Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) of Lagos State has pledged to provide N40,000 in its monthly budget to take care of family planning consumables in its four Primary Health Centres (PHCs).
The LCDA’s Chairman, Mr Abdulfatai Oyesanya, made the pledge on Tuesday in Lagos, when a team from the Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative (PHSAI) and Lagos Advocacy Work Group (LAWG) visited his office.
Oyesanya said: “ We have identified that Family Planning (FP) plays a vital role and has positive impact on a country’s economic development.
“At the London 2012 FP Summit, Nigeria, like many other countries, committed to ensuring a budget line for family planning to cater for purchases and management of commodities and consumables to service delivery points.
“However, with the exception of a few states such as Lagos, most states in our country still do not make funds available even to ensure availability of the minimal level of commodity.
“Also, the non-availability of consumables in our PHCs is a major hindrance to our people accessing family planning services
“To help to alleviate some of these hitches and achieve the FP2020 goals, the Ikosi-Isheri LCDA commits to releasing N40,000 monthly in our budget for the procurement of family planning consumables.
“Our four PHCs, the Ikosi PHC, Isheri PHC, Maidan PHC and Idera PHC will get N10,000 each every month.’’
According to the chairman, committing to this budget will have positive multiple effect on women, families and the society at large.
“Family Planning has many benefits; if we plan very well with the number of children we will have, the economy and infrastructure will not be strained.
“Also, at the end of the day, we will not have children dropping out from schools or many miscreants, all because families do not have the wherewithal to nurture and train them well.
“The society starts from the family; once we get these children right from our homes and immediate environment, the current bad situations will be minimal,’’ Oyesanya said.
Responding, Mrs Abiola Adekoya, leader of the visiting team commended the LCDA for the priority given to health and family planning.
“The government’s efforts to ensure that family planning is made a priority led to the development of the Nigeria FP Blueprint (Scale-up Plan) which was launched in October 2014.
“It is a policy to guide proper and adequate programming, sufficient allocation of resources, while ensuring that commitments are upheld toward achieving the national objective of a contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of 36 per cent by 2018.
“While the family planning commodities are free, the availability of consumables has remained a challenge.
“There needs to be a review on the funds for consumables because without consumables and if they are not available, family planning and services cannot be conducted.’’
Adekoya said that the unavailability of consumables could lead to unintended pregnancies for people who already had many children and want to use a family planning method.
“If a woman goes to access family planning and she is told that there are no consumables, if she goes back home, there is a likelihood that she may get pregnant before she goes back to the clinic again.
“Also, out of desperation, they may go to terminate the baby and end up having unsafe abortion which can lead to maternal death.
“ So, if N10, 000 can be released every month to each PHC to procure the consumables, family planning will be accessible and we will be able to save the lives of our women,’’ Adekoya said.
On the state of family planning services at Ikosi-Isheri LCDA, Mrs Titilayo Beckley, the Apex Nurse, said that patronage had increased.
According to her, this is inspired by the makeover of the family planning clinic by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive health Initiative (NURHI). (NAN)
VIV/PDE
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(Editing by Peter Ejiofor)