The Federal Government is set to introduce Rural Emergency Service and Maternal Transportation, RESMAT to reduce incidences of maternal and child mortality.
Dr Saidu Dumbulwa, the National Programme Officer for the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System, NEMSAS, said this on Monday in Abuja at a stakeholders’ meeting.
The meeting had “Addressing the Abysmal Maternal Mortality Indices Through Rural Emergency Medical Services” as its theme.
According to Dumbulwa, every year in Nigeria, there are about nine million pregnancies with an estimated nine per cent of developing complications, mostly in rural areas.
He added that delays in transportation were one of the major causes of maternal mortality.
According to the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Nigeria has a Maternal Mortality Rate, MMR of 576 per 100,000 live births with under-five mortality rate, U5MR, of 95 per 1,000 live births, accounting for 10 per cent of global under-five deaths.
He, however, said that the Nigerian health sector renewal investment programme of the Federal Government, through the sector-wide approach programme, prioritised rural ambulance and maternal Transport.
This, he said, followed the fact that the burden of disease could potentially be addressed by pre-hospital and emergency care in rural settings and hard-to-reach areas, thereby reducing the maternal deaths occurring in Nigeria.