By; PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
Towards making healthcare accessible and affordable to all, the Akwa Ibom State Government has reiterated its commitment to providing enabling environment and resources to any corporate organisation and individual willing to partner government to achieve effective healthcare delivery as well as in other sectors in the state.
The state Commissioner for Health, Prof Augustine Umoh stated this in an address he presented at a two-day Optimisation of the Text4Life App training workshop organised for health professionals in the state by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Uyo on Thursday.
The Commissioner, who was represented by the Director of Public Health in the Ministry, Dr Etop Antia expressed government’s gratitude to UNFPA for supporting reproductive health activities in the state.
“The state Ministry of Health is always ready to collaborate with Partners to promote any project that will bring a positive change in the health sector, Prof Umoh added.
He urged participants at the training workshop to pay attention, ask necessary questions where clarification are needed to achieve the needed skills from the event.
In her welcome address, the Executive Secretary, Akwa Ibom State Primary Health Development Agency, Dr Eno Attah traced the various health challenges, including gender based violence with women as most vulnerable in the state to the 2020 nationwide lockdown occasioned by Covid19 outbreak.
She said Text4Life App is a conscious effort by UNFPA to provide timely access to health facilities by citizens and residents of the state, especially women and anyone who has suffered gender based violence.
Dr Attah also advised participants to leverage on the training workshop as an added skill to help them function effectively on issues of family health.
Earlier, the UNFPA representative, Dr. Araoyibo Idowu in his address said UNFPA text4life service is an innovation where an individual can report various health complications including Covid19, gender based violence, unwanted pregnancy, pregnancy complications and other sexual and reproductive health health right (SARHR) problems to health facilitators and civil society organisations which support access to service in project communities for the purpose of improving the utilisation of health facilities.
He added that the programme was a pilot project with nine states of the federation including Akwa Ibom and FCT, Abuja as beneficiaries. “The test4life is an initiative that had its berth during the emergence of Covid19 which brought about lockdown. And the problem created was what test for life was trying to address.
“It is a home based technology that is used for health, a mobile health assistance app. What it does basically is that it links the NGOs with the health facilitators. And not just the facilitators but it links them with community based organisations that are providing specific intervention especially as it concerns gender rights violation.
“As you know gender based violence has continued over the period and it is our job to make sure survivors have access to test4life facilities that they require. But in any innovation, you need to set up a pilot and this pilot is set up in nine states including the FCT.
“To enhance services, we have set up 36 facilities and some of these facilities are in Akwa Ibom State spread across three local government areas namely: Uyo, Ikot Ikpene and Eket. We are hoping that with this spread, we’ll be able to address some of the health needs of the people. The facility can be accessed even by people outside the country,” Dr Idowu stated.
Speaking more on how text4life application works, Dr Idowu added, “It’s as simple as being in the comfort of your home. Maybe you have the case of severe diarrhoea, and you’re confused as to what to do. All you need to do is to take your phone, and dial *347*16#. As soon as you dial it, you’re going to get a prompt and you don’t need data to use it. You’ll get a prompt showing that you need to register and then as soon as you have registered, you can report your complaint. The next prompt is where are you?. Which health centre is quite close to you?. And then as soon as you cue in the health facility closest to you, it sends a message straight to that health facility and then that health facility will call you and enquire about the emergency thereafter they will provide the necessary information and medications.”
Dr Idowu, who works as a sexual reproductive health analyst for United Nations Formulation Programme Development however said that text4life is not by anyway discouraging people from going to health care facility, but it is an app that gives someone in distress, an access to an informed person that can guide him or her on how to get access to the service require.
Participants at the workshop were drawn from selected primary health centres in Uyo, Ikot Ekpene and Eket local government areas of the state.
