The Federal Government has urged Kano State Government to adopt the National Self Care and Self Injection guidelines in other to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in the state.
Dr Kayode Afolabi, Director, Reproductive Health ,Federal Ministry of Health, made the call on Monday in Kano during a meeting with the state commissioner for Health, Dr Aminu Tsanyawa in his office.
Afolabi explained that the minister of Health inaugurated a task force to look at the emphasis of self Care Guidelines,its importance in improving access to care and uptake of interventions on the healthcare service.
He said that National Self Care and Self Injection guidelines was developed by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) with support from Pathfinder, JSI, SFH , PATH among others.
He further added that the guideline was designed to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health (RMCN) services in the country.
The director explained that the domestication of the guidelines would set the ball rolling to scale up self-care policies and programs in order to transform health care systems and place autonomy , power, and control in the hands of women and children.
According him, the guidelines approved by the minister of health, which have four thematic areas geared towards looking at critical areas where higher burden of diseases were been recorded .
“We refer to our safe care guidelines as the national guidelines for safe care for sexual, reproductive,and maternal Health. While the fourth thematic area include areas that looked at improving ante natal care, delivery,and new born care”
“Another key thematic areas is providing high quality services for family planning , Post Abortion care and combating sexually transmission infections.
“What we expect from the state Government is to approve and support the goal of expanding access to self care across all the local Government Areas of the state,” he added.
He maintained that the Ministry was also working tirelessly in creating awareness and channels of accessing self care ,aimed at uplifting the health Status of the General populace.
Responding, the state commissioner for health, Dr. Aminu Tsanyawa, reiterated the state government’s commitment to ensure effective implementation of the programme in the state.
Tsanyawa, said it was essential to support women and reduce maternal mortality, stressing the need for stakeholders to work collectively to fast track implementation of the Self Care programme.
He said that the state government had renovated over 500 Heath facilities out of the 1,200 to ensure good and conducive working environment for the health workers.
The commissioner also restated the state governments commitment to provide quality and accessible health care to the people of the state.
Tsanyawa lauded the Federal Governments support ,stressing that the safe guidelines intervention was a positive Development in uplifting health Status of the General populace.
Also speaking, Dr Amina Aminu, the Country Director, Pathfinder, a development partner of the Self Care programme, said increased access to information would reduce the spate of maternal mortality and other health challenges.
She said that the adoption of the guidelines would be a huge win for Kano and Northern Nigeria as a whole.
Aminu expressed hope that the state government would adopt the self -care guidelines to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in the state.
