Expectant mothers fault Adamawa govt's free health scheme

SOME expectant mothers in Yola, Adamawa State, claim they have been excluded from the government programme of free health care for children, pregnant women and accident victims.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that only in August, the state government announced that N50 million had been allocated to the free health services scheme for the categories of people.The Commissioner for Health, Dr Lawal Hamidu also confirmed that the programme had been in existence for the past three years in 13 general hospitals.However, the women who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at Yola Specialists' Hospital, complained that they had not been enjoying the services, and called on the government to investigate the implementation of the policy.The complainants claimed that they had to pay for their medical bills every time they appeared for treatment.A pregnant woman who identified herself as Madam Hafsatu Isa, from Dubeli Ward in Yola South Local Government Area, said since she began attending antenatal clinic, she had never received free medicines.Hafsatu called on the government to revisit the implementation of the programme to enable common people to benefit.Another complainant, Mrs. Grace Ayuba, said she merely heard that government had approved some amount for the free medical service to pregnant women.``I heard over the radio that some millions of Naira was released by government for free medical services to pregnant women and children, but to my surprise, up till now, I have never benefited from that programme,'' Grace said.Some family members of accident victims in the hospital ,who spoke to NAN, also claimed that there was ``nothing like free medical service for accident victims.''The Health Commissioner told NAN that the programme was introduced in 2008/2009 before he became commissioner.``When I was appointed last year, I made sure that the programme was extended to primary health care centres across the state,'' he said.He said not everybody could benefit owing to the large number of patients, beside the fact that many health workers had been on strike in the past five months.``Now that the strike has been called off, we are going to begin the distribution of the drugs to all primary health centres across the state to enable those in rural areas benefit from the programme.''He said that medical consumables would also be distributed on a monthly basis under a high-powered monitoring team to all primary health centres.
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