Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd, has delivered maternal and neo-natal care equipment to Federal Medical Centre, FMC,Ebute-Metta, Lagos, as part of its Safe Birth Initiative, SBI, project that was launched late last year.
The SBI was launched in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals , OSSAPP- SDGs and an NGO, Medshare International Inc.
The initiative sought to challenge maternal and newborn deaths in Nigeria, by strengthening capacity in three critical areas which include procurement and supply of maternal and neonatal medical equipment to enable safe deliveries and post-delivery emergency care; training of biomedical engineering technicians to improve equipment maintenance and uptime as well as reactivating abandoned medical equipment wasting away in public hospitals.
Speaking during equipment handover in Lagos, Coca-Cola West Africa Public Affairs & Communications Director, Mr. Clem Ugorji, stated that FMC Ebute- Metta, was one and the second beneficiary of the 15 recognised major hospitals to benefit from the gesture,which also included kits such as needles ,gloves and injections ,all valued at about $10.8 million.
Ugorji also reiterated the importance of public private partnership towards the achievement the sustainable development goals.
He said: “Active and intentional collaboration between members of the private and public sector is key to transforming healthcare in Nigeria. We commend the good works of our doctors and nurses but also recognise that there is a limit to what they can do without the critical equipment required for effective diagnosis, testing and treatment.
“Through the SBI, we are pleased to be able to donate vital equipment to aid the work currently being done to safeguard the lives of mothers and babies here and the other hospitals that will receive donations as part of the first phase of the initiative”.
Reacting to the gesture, Chief Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta, Dr. Adedamola Dada, expressed gratitude to the donors and promised effective utilization and maintenance of the equipment.
“ We are grateful to Coca-Cola, the OSSAP-SDGs, Medshare International and the Federal Government for this initiative. Already, since receiving the equipment early this year, we have saved just a little under N10 million in medical and administrative costs.
We have recorded and supported 21 premature births with the incubators; 321 mothers and babies have been brought home alive and 46,000 other patients have benefitted in some way from the gesture. The company has also ensured maintenance of equipment, making sure we have adequate engineering capacity on ground, through the training of our engineers,” he said.
