Kwara Govt Decries Dearth of Health Workers in Primary Health Care Centres

 

 

Kwara State Government has decried the dearth of health workers in primary health care centres for effective delivery of its services in the state.

Commissioner for Health, Mrs Amina El-Imam stated this on Tuesday in Ilorin at a ”One Day Town Hall Conversation on State Health Sector between the citizens, health care professionals, stakeholders and Civil Society Organisations with the State Health Commissioner”.

The conversation was organised by the DEAN Initiative as COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability in Africa (CTAP) project under the leadership of BudgIT and Connected Development (CODE).

El-Imam who was represented by Dr (Mrs) Olabisi Oyeyipo, the Programme Fiscal Person for the ministry’s Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, said the challenge was affecting the existing health centres as they were understaffed.

She said this was among the challenges faced by the health centres for effective service delivery in the state.

The health commissioner added that though the ministry recently held a training for the health workers on improving human relations, the workers were always overwhelmed as humans tended to misbehave with patients.

She however urged people to improve their patronage of the primary health centers as they were cheaper and easier to assess than hospitals.

El-Imam added that by patronizing the hecentresnters, the community members would be able to engage the government more on their needs and improve the existing ones.

 

 

While discussing the issue of COVID-19 vaccine, she said Kwara effectively managed the virus and ensured the administration of vaccines as required and also created awareness of it through radio jingles and public campaigns.

Executive Secretary, Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Nusirat Elelu, urged community members to take ownership of the hecentresnters and not leave that to the government to do.

Dr Elelu who was represented by Dr Adeniran Ayodeji said by taking ownership of the health centres, residents would now be allowed to do things that go wrong and they would be able to alert the government on time when interventions are needed.

On the issue of COVID-19 vaccine, Dr Elelu scored Kwara high in managing the virus when the heat was on and the eventual administration of the vaccines in all the nooks and crannies of the state.

She urged the CSOs to ensure the use of social mobilisation in carrying out their programmes, as it goes a long way in shaping the minds of the people and last longer in their minds.

Executive Direcof tor, DEAN Initiative, Michael Larayetan, said the conversation was to foster collaborative dialogue uniting citizens, healthcare professionals, stakeholders and Civil Society Organisations with the State Health Commissioner.

Fisayo Olaleru, Finance Officer, DEAN Initiative, said the DEAN Initiative is CTAP’s education partner entrusted with leading vaccine equity and health sector Accountability education and awareness.

She said the project was being undertaken in African countries to strengthen vaccine equity and health sector accountability in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Miss Olaleru said the project was carried out in six states in Nigeria (Kwara, Rivers, Oyo, Enugu, Kaduna and Borno) to have an informed opinion about across thegeo-politicaltical zones.

She said the organisation worked for three months in Kwara, engaging 130 participants through Focus Group Discussions in three communities.

Members of different communities with primary hecentresnters stated their challenges and government officials called for calmpromisedomise to work on the problems raised.

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