SOGON begins volunteer work in rural health centres

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Nigeria (SOGON) says its members have begun volunteering at primary health centres under a newly inaugurated volunteer scheme in efforts to improve maternal and newborn health in rural areas. At least 1,500 obstetricians and gynaecologists have signed on, said SOGON president, Dr. Joseph Adinma, at a press briefing […]

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Nigeria (SOGON) says its members have begun volunteering at primary health centres under a newly inaugurated volunteer scheme in efforts to improve maternal and newborn health in rural areas.
At least 1,500 obstetricians and gynaecologists have signed on, said SOGON president, Dr. Joseph Adinma, at a press briefing ahead of SOGON’s 9th international congress and annual general meeting in Abuja, to focus on promoting women’s health.
He said the volunteer obstetricians’ scheme, which has latched onto the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, “is currently being implemented in a number of states and is soon going to be formally flagged off for nationwide implementation.”
Under the scheme, experts in obstetrics and gynaecology working in tertiary hospitals will commit regular hours free of charge to consult in primary health centres nearest to their places of work in effort to afford rural women expert care.
SOGON is also pushing for national obstetrics and gynaecology unions across West Africa to band into a regional association as has been done in Latin America and East and Southern Africa.
The sub-regional association of obstetricians and gynaecologists of West Africa could be prelude to a college for the specialty, which as yetis subsumed under the West African College of Surgeons.
SOGON said its members have already begun a programme for free maternal health services for internally displaced people in Borno, Bauchi and Yobe states.
But it is also pushing for maternal and child death surveillance, which will track and probe every pregnancy – and childbirth-related death nationwide.