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abujagirl
Guest
Alhaji Najeem Yasin, President, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), has said that the union will focus on reducing maternal mortality in the country through its Emergency Transport Scheme (ETS).
ETS is a scheme under the Maternal and Child Health project of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P MCH) for reducing maternal newborn mortality.
Yasin, in an interview in Abuja on Monday, said the scheme was aimed at reducing maternal child mortality through effective referral mechanism during emergencies in rural communities.
According to him, ETS is implemented through the participation of union members who serve as volunteer drivers to transport pregnant women experiencing maternal complications to healthcare facilities for quick medical attention.
He said since 2004, the union had been collaborating with development partners to implement ETS in northern parts of the country.
Nyasin said during the period, ETS drivers conveyed thousands of pregnant women in various emergency situations to health facilities freely or on payment of the cost of fuel.
"With this scheme, accessibility to health will be brought to the doorsteps of all pregnant women in the target areas. The need for ETS cannot be over-emphasised taking cognisance of the critical situation of many pregnant women, especially in the remote areas of the country.
"Such pregnant women die from preventable deaths not because of lack of doctors or equipment but due to delays in reaching heath facilities," he said.
He said the move by National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) by providing financial support to NURTW to implement ETS would go a long way in bringing smiles to pregnant women and their families.
Yasin the project would ensure that "no lives can be lost in the process of giving birth to our children.
"This will also greatly contribute towards attaining MDGs 4 and 5 which are reduction of maternal mortality and improvement in the health of children respectively."
The union had on April 3 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NPHCDA for implementation of ETS. The MoU was signed to carry out a six-month pilot ETS at selected SURE-P MCH facilities.
He said the facilities were in the FCT, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna, Zamfara, Anambra, Ebonyi, Bayelsa and Imo states. He said resources provided by NPHCDA would be used judiciously to implement the scheme.
ETS is a scheme under the Maternal and Child Health project of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P MCH) for reducing maternal newborn mortality.
Yasin, in an interview in Abuja on Monday, said the scheme was aimed at reducing maternal child mortality through effective referral mechanism during emergencies in rural communities.
According to him, ETS is implemented through the participation of union members who serve as volunteer drivers to transport pregnant women experiencing maternal complications to healthcare facilities for quick medical attention.
He said since 2004, the union had been collaborating with development partners to implement ETS in northern parts of the country.
Nyasin said during the period, ETS drivers conveyed thousands of pregnant women in various emergency situations to health facilities freely or on payment of the cost of fuel.
"With this scheme, accessibility to health will be brought to the doorsteps of all pregnant women in the target areas. The need for ETS cannot be over-emphasised taking cognisance of the critical situation of many pregnant women, especially in the remote areas of the country.
"Such pregnant women die from preventable deaths not because of lack of doctors or equipment but due to delays in reaching heath facilities," he said.
He said the move by National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) by providing financial support to NURTW to implement ETS would go a long way in bringing smiles to pregnant women and their families.
Yasin the project would ensure that "no lives can be lost in the process of giving birth to our children.
"This will also greatly contribute towards attaining MDGs 4 and 5 which are reduction of maternal mortality and improvement in the health of children respectively."
The union had on April 3 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NPHCDA for implementation of ETS. The MoU was signed to carry out a six-month pilot ETS at selected SURE-P MCH facilities.
He said the facilities were in the FCT, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna, Zamfara, Anambra, Ebonyi, Bayelsa and Imo states. He said resources provided by NPHCDA would be used judiciously to implement the scheme.
