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The Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, has been commended for his pro-active healthcare initiatives that have contributed to general wellbeing and long life of the citizenry, especially those in trauma.
Making this known on the occasion of road walk to mark the 2024 World Oxygen Day with the theme, “Breathe Better, Walk Together,” the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Anambra State Medical Oxygen Production Plants (ANSOPP), Nwamaka Arinze said the agency, thanked the governor for his assurance to increase the number of cylinders from 200 to 500 in the nearest future.
She observed that the gesture would help to make health services functionally and regularly available, affordable, accessible, especially women on labour or delivered of newborns, and victims of accidents and trauma which would have been lost due to unavailability of oxygen.
Arinze, who was one of the initiators of the medical oxygen plant project under the Willie Obiano administration observed that the Medical Oxygen Plant strategically sited at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku Awka, remained the biggest in the South East zone.
She hinted that the additional cylinders would consolidate efforts being made to ensure hospitals always have enough oxygen to check occurrences of avoidable deaths in the state.
According to her, the governor’s disruptive and intentional mandate on health vision to ANSOPP is that no one should die due to lack of oxygen at hospitals.
She pointed out that the Federal Government has set up a national policy to ensure that Nigeria achieves Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of which oxygen plant is a critical component.
According to her, the agency is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the governor’s expectation of meeting the vision 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at Under-5 Infant Mortality Rate to 25 per 1000 live births.
