800,000 Children To Benefit From M-IMOP Health Intervention In C’River
About 800,000 children and 200,000 women in Cross River are targeted in the Modified Integrated Medical Outreach Programme put together by the federal and state governments in conjunction with primary healthcare development agency.
Flagging off the programme in Calabar, Monday, the State Deputy Governor, Prof Ivara Esu, said the State is “out to ensure that no child dies of childhood diseases. Due to this, we are strengthening immunization, providing free health services especially for children and women in line with government’s determination to ensure a healthy population.”
Prof Esu charged healthcare providers who would handle the programme to ensure its holistic implementation.
In her remarks, Hadiza Jubril, national facilitator for M-IMOP implementation, disclosed that over 3 million children remained un-immunized in the country, and hoped the programme would take care of the challenge.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Betta Edu, who also spoke, said the State healthcare delivery team would use the programme to immunize, treat minor illnesses, perform minor surgeries, provide nutritional services on maternal and child care, amongst other services.
On her part, the Director-General of the Cross River state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Janet Ekpenyong, said the programme became necessary following an assessment conducted in many States which showed some States had not done well in terms of some health indicators.
“This programme will ensure a greater percentage of children under 5 years of age are immunized and that pregnant women can easily access healthcare.
It is an outreach programme. We are taking these services to their doorsteps.
“We have fixed health posts and what we also called mobile health posts, temporary posts like Churches, town halls, markets stalls which will be used for the programme.
“This programme will reach out to those who, probably due to COVID-19, have not been able to access healthcare. Over 800,000 children, particularly under 5 years, and about 200,000 women are targeted to see how we could reduce maternal and infant mortality rate,” she stated.
Ekpenyong explained that the programme would strengthen and enhance primary health care services across the nation particularly as the programme is completely free of charge.
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