Mimiko Warns Against Political Health Data

Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has called for proper verification of emerging data from different sources in the health sector so as to differentiate genuine data- backed results from politically generated ones. Mimiko who was on Thursday conferred with an honorary fellowship award by the National postgraduate Medical College at its 33rd Convocation ceremony in Ijanikin, while receiving the award challenged scholars at the event to be more proactive in verifying data emanating from different sources so as to differentiate genuine data-backed results from politically generated ones. The Governor who promised that his government will continue to invest in the state’s health facilities until it is established as a point of reference in medical tourism in Nigeria and beyond, said at the inception of his government “It was clear there had to be a total overhaul and reform of the health system and we chose to put maternal and child care at the front burner of medical attention. ” We were resolute in our conviction that finances should not be a barrier to qualitative healthcare and that, for us to succeed, all pregnant women must be tracked from conception to delivery.” Six years down the line he said, the government home-grown Abiye (safe-motherhood) programme is today, arguably one of the most successful and talked about healthcare initiatives in the developing world. He said at the inception of his administration in February 2009, the government met a poorly funded, inadequately equipped health infrastructure manned by an ill-motivated and under-staffed professional work force. He said It did not help matters that the 2008 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) put Ondo State as having the worst maternal and child health indices in the southwest, stressing however that the State has reduced Maternal Mortality Ratio from a baseline of 545 per 100,000 births , a reduction of over 70%, adding that the state had the unenviable reputation of being the only southwestern State and one of the few nationwide without a state-run teaching hospital for both under and post-graduate training at the time, submitting that “Perhaps, this is another noteworthy record set by Ondo State. With your endorsement, we now have teaching hospitals in the State, something we have lacked since her creation almost 40 years ago.” He thus thanked the teams of the Faculties of the National Postgraduate Medical College “who, after a painstaking process, formally accredited the Trauma and Surgical centre and the Mother and Child Hospital for post graduate training in General surgery, Orthopaedics and Obstetrics & Gynaecology respectively all in less than 3 years from inception”. The Governor said concurrently, a facility-based five-year audit of maternal Mortality Ratio at the Mother and Child Hospital Akure believed to be the busiest maternity centre in Nigeria with over 30,000 births, showed a reduction from 708 per 100,000 births in 2010 to 208 per 100,000 in 2014, another fall of over 70%. “We have gotten to the point where over 90% of our pregnant women are being tracked at every point in time, and we have the data to back it up”he offered, explaining further that “As regards child health, through our “Orirewa” – acronym for “Ondo State Routine Immunization Reaching Every Ward Always” – programme, we have been able to mainstream routine immunization into our primary health care system. ” As a matter of fact, we have won consecutively, the two (and only) editions of Bill and Melinda Gates National Leadership Award for Polio eradication for 2013 and 2014″. Further mentioning some of his government’s feat in the health sector since inception, Governor Mimiko said in the first quarter of last year, it launched an innovative and pragmatic collaboration with traditional birth attendants and faith-based healers incentivizing their referrals of pregnant women for delivery in public health facilities while gradually phasing, them out, a project termed the “Agbebiye Initiative” which he described as “the first successful and sustainable statewide intervention to address the menace of unskilled attendance at deliveries and has already attracted the attention of development partners” He said in one year of this Initiative,5,712 pregnant women have been referred from various TBA/Mission Home Attendants to various health facilities across the state. The resultant deliveries, he said , included 11 twins, 7 triplets and one quadruplet set” concluding that “It is apposite at this point to challenge our erudite scholars here present to be more proactive in verifying data emanating from different sources so as to differentiate genuine data-backed results from politically generated ones”