By Vincent Ujumadu
AWKA—ANAMBRA State government has distributed hospital equipment and drugs procured at a cost of N75 million to 15 general hospitals located in various parts of the state.

The benefitting hospitals are those at Umuleri, Atani, Osomala, Awka, Ogidi, Enugwu Ukwu, Agulu and Nnobi. The others are at Okija, Aguluzoigbo, Ukpor, Umunze, Umuchu, Ekwulobia and Ajali.

Items distributed to the hospitals include incubators, photolysis machines, delivery couch, oxygen masks, hand gloves, sutures, suction machines, resuscitation machines, among others which were for emergency obstetric care and reduction in women and child mortality.

Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Professor Chinyere Okunna, said during the distribution in Awka that the items were procured by the state government in collaboration with the federal government through the Millennium Development Goals, MDG, in the presidency.

Okunna, who is the state chairman of the MDG Implementation Committee, explained that it was part of the state government’s intervention at the secondary level of healthcare delivery which, according to her, is in line with government’s objective of meeting the MDG by 2015.

She noted that similar items had earlier been donated to the primary health centers in the state for the same objective.

Governor Peter Obi, while handing the items to the chief medical directors of the hospitals and presidents-general of the benefitting communities, urged them to take charge of the materials by ensuring that they were put into proper use.

He expressed the commitment of his administration towards meeting the target of MDGs, adding that with the acknowledgement of the donor agencies that Anambra had been striving to meet the goals, the desired impact would be met.

“We know that there are challenges, but we are surmounting them. There might be areas we have not done well, but we are taking everything one after the other to cover all sectors,” the governor said.