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In a move to boost access to healthcare, a non-governmental organisation, Adebiyi Habib Foundation, has renovated the Children’s Ward of Ifo General Hospital in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State.
The facility upgrade, the foundation said, was in line with its commitment to create a conducive environment for patients to receive better healthcare and improve healthcare workers’ productivity.
Speaking at the commissioning on Thursday, the Ifo General Hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Soetan Olufemi, who praised the foundation for its intervention, said the children’s ward facelift would drive productivity.
“The initiative will have a positive impact on the dignity and wellbeing of our staff members saddled with taking care of the children. Even our patients, particularly the children, will want to stay more because the place now looks like home away from home and our staff members will also be able to do their job better,” Olufemi, who was represented by Dr. Adetutu Ogunnubi, said.
The CMD noted that more of such intervention is needed for the facility to meet growing demand for adequate health care accessibility.
“We need more of this as facelift and upgrades of our facilities will ensure greater access to healthcare for the people of Ogun State. Some of these impediments are why we do refer emergencies to FMC Abeokuta and patients do accuse us of negligence but some of them don’t know we don’t have the capacity to take on some of these emergencies,” the medical director said.
Olufemi, however, appealed to AHF and other well-meaning Nigerians, particularly in Ogun, to contribute their quota in ensuring greater access to healthcare provision.
Speaking earlier, the AHF Founder, Adebiyi Habib, said the intervention was in line with goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals which the organisation has keyed into to drive its transformative agenda in the health sector.
According to him, as an organisation with brilliant minds, we are determined to take our place at the forefront of the fight against inequality in the health sector particularly in underserved communities.
He said, “To achieve this onerous objective, it became imperative that we must at all times collaboratively work towards ensuring everyone has access to essential healthcare services, increase the number of healthcare professionals in underserved areas without financial hardship and improve their skills to address specific health needs and provision of community-based health services, such as mobile health clinics, to increase access to healthcare.
“Looking ahead, we aim to intensify more efforts in closing the gap in the inequality in our health sector particularly in the underserved communities by advocating for more standard and equipped medical facilities. We hope to provide free health insurance for some inhabitants of some of these underserved communities.”
Listing the organisation’s interventions in other areas, Habib, who is a legal practitioner, said, “In our efforts to contribute the foundation’s quota towards the development of our communities, we have executed many projects in areas of health and education in Ogun State. On April 27th, 2024, we executed a free medical outreach with the distribution of free drugs in six communities of Yewa North Local Government such as Joga Orile, Imashayi, Iboro, Sunwa, Iju, Ibeshe, etc with over 400 beneficiaries.
“In the past years, we have led tech-driven social change by integrating ICT, advocacy, and education, reaching over 50,000 individuals with digital literacy training in the last 9 years. To put in perspective, as an organisation, our mission to leverage technology for societal progress remained strong, with initiatives aligning with key Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 3,4,8.”
The intervention at the Ifo General Hospital saw the children’s ward wearing a new look, bedding, mattresses, and ceiling fans. Others to be added include a television set and children’s toys.
