Plans are underway to increase fistula budget line in the Kwara State 2017 supplementary budget.
The State Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Sulayman Alege announced this at Sobi Specialist Hospital, Ilorin during the formal opening of free fistula repairs organised by the Kwara State Government in conjunction with the USAID Fistula Care Plus Project.
Alhaji Alege who said the sum of N10m was budgeted for fistula repairs in the 2016 budget promised that the government had increased the budget line to N16m.
He sought the support of Engender Health Fistula Care Plus Project for the establishment of Fistula Centre in Ilorin with a view to serving as service centre for fistula cases in the North Central geo-political zone.
Alhaji Alege said Kwara as a gateway between the North and South would is at vantage position to handle fistula repairs in the region.
The Commissioner added that the state is ready to partner with relevant Non-Governmental Organisations in improving the health care delivery of the people.
In his remarks, the State Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development, Alhaji Wasiu Odewale said the state is in the process of reviewing the 2017 appropriation Law and promised further support to the health sector.
Alhaji Odewale assured that the ongoing Supplementary budget process would favour increased in budget line for fistula repairs.
Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Ayinke Saka represented by Hajia Aminah Yahya described the fistula repair exercise as women project, saying that women lost dignity as result of stigma against fistula clients.
She enjoined women to attend antenatal care regularly and deliver under the supervision of skilled birth attendants to avoid coming down with fistula.
Earlier in his remarks, the Country Project Manager, Engender Health Fistula Care Plus Project, Chief Iyeme Efem explained that the pooled effort was organised to assist fistula clients in living normal lives.
Chief Efem said the Project is supporting a number of hospitals across the country in organising pooled fistula repairs and called for routine repairs to reduce backlog of fistula cases.
The Chief Medical Director of Sobi Specialist Hospital, Doctor Musa Sanni said the Hospital had managed two hundred fistula cases since the intervention begun in 2011 with the clients from rural communities and neighbouring states of Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Kogi and Lagos.
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