By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Executive Director/CEO, National Primary Health Care Agency, (NPHCA) Dr. Faisal Shuaib on Monday, hinted that the federal government has renovated over 4,000 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) within the last four years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration,
Dr. Shuaib dropped this hint in Ibadan while speaking with journalists at the end of his parley with representatives of Oyo State Ministry of Health.
The NPHCA Executive Director/ CEO also said the federal government in the last four years of President Buhari’s administration has ensured that the PHCs are revitalized, while health workers embarked on periodic training to have capacity to delivere quality healthcare services to Nigerians.
Dr. Shuaib pointed out that healthcare of Nigerians especially at the PHCs level has continued to be the priority of the President Buhari administration to ensure that Nigerians are well treated with dignity and compassion whenever they access healthcare.
“Healthcare of Nigerians is our priority, that is why we are working with stakeholders at the national level in making sure that Nigerians are well treated with dignity and compassion whenever they access these facilities, they are respected, and making sure they are given medication and management that will make them recover from their illness”, he said.
Dr. Shuaib added, ” we are doing better than how it was few years ago, our ambition is to have at least one functional PHC per political ward across the country”.
” No matter how big the money we spend into health sector, it is not enough to spend money into building large tertiary hospitals, we must also revitalize PHCs by recruiting well trained health workers, making sure the workers are well paid, ensuring security across the PHCs and putting in place infrastructure.”
Dr Shuaib however expressed fear over shortage of health workers in PHCs in some of the States in the country as some states lacked adequate human resources in their PHCs which has been affecting healthcare services in those states.
“We need adequate human resources so that we can have well trained, respectful personnel to attend to people at various health centers, we need to improve quality of healthcare in our PHCs, and that is why we are working with governors, commissioners and traditional rulers to see how we can move from where we are to the next level”
The Executive Director/CEO, National Primary Health Care Agency charged governors in the 36 states of the federation to increased numbers of health workers in PHCs for adequate primary healthcare delivery system.
Dr Shuaib then commended Oyo state government on its efforts at giving immunization to adults and children across the state, adding, ” looking at the data, Oyo State is one of the best performing state when it come to the stage 3.0 roll out of the integrated COVID 19 campaign which was launched in Abuja three weeks ago.
“We are very proud of the work that is going on here, and as part of the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency mantra around accountability, we shouldn’t only look at what is not working, we should also look at what is working well.
“We are here today to encouraged them and commend them for the outstanding work they have been doing, and telling them that Nigerians in general appreciate them.”
Oyo State Commissioner for Health Dr. Bode Ladipo said the visitation was an attestation to the efforts of the state government towards affordable healthcare delivery which was one of the priority of the state government.
