Young Midwifery Leaders and Lagos Island Maternity Midwives have advocated for an improved healthcare delivery in the country to combat maternal mortality.
They stated this at a recent two-day workshop at the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital with the theme ‘Midwives Leading through policy-making and advocacy’.
The event in collaboration with the International Confederation of Midwives was aimed at reinforcing the importance of midwives in the welfare of maternal and newborn patients, policymaking, COVID-19 vaccine awareness, and other issues that promote the quality of service to patients.
Speaking with journalists, Animashaun Olamide, one of the participants from the hospital’s nursing and midwifery department, believed that the workshop has generally reinforced their experience to promote quality healthcare and be a voice for the voiceless in the health sector.
“This workshop is necessary for the participants because it speaks to us all to take our space as midwives who are in charge of maternity with the newborns and challenge our mentality at work to be more effective than before,” she said.
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“It helps because everything mentioned regarding healthcare in Nigeria is true and it is an eye-opener for us who attended the workshop,” she further said.
Also speaking, Sanni Olugbenga, another participant decried the unavailability and low level of awareness regarding the Patient Bill of Rights (PBOR) among patients, particularly in Nigeria.
“The Patient Bill of Rights since its inception in 2018 is meant to be made available in any healthcare organisation to the patients and healthcare workers. Unfortunately, only the latter has access to this bill.”
“We know our rights, duties, and responsibilities as medical practitioners but there is a need for more efforts to carry out these tasks and it can only be enforced through the availability of the Patient Bill of Rights,” Olugbenga said.
