By Stephen Adeleye.
The Kogi Primary Healthcare Development Agency (KSPHCDA) has urged Local Government Administrators in the state to give maximum support to its activities to enhance quality healthcare delivery to the people at the grassroots.
Dr Abubarka Yakubu, Executive Director, KSPHCDA, made the call on Wednesday at the inauguration of the first round of the 2019 Maternal, Newborn, Child Health Week (MNCHW), held at Banquet Hall, Government House, Lokoja.
“If the SPHCDA is going to ever operate at optimal level, all hands must be on deck.
“With the recent financial autonomy of the Local Governments, it has become very necessary for them to support our routine immunisation as well distribution of vaccines to hard to reach areas in their communities,” Yakubu said.
He, therefore, appealed to the Local Government Administrators to key into the activities of the agency especially Routine Immunisation (RI), stressing that the overall success of their activities would be central to local authorities.
He noted that Kogi State had been certified free of polio virus for 10 years now, but cautioned that the detection of wpv1 and cvdpv2 in Nigeria and neighbouring states, underscored the importance of maintaining high level of RI coverage at all levels.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the week-long free healthcare services for women and children in the state was sponsored by Saving One Million Lives Program for Result (SOML P for R).
He commended Gov. Yahaya Bello for signing the Primary Health Care Amendment Bill and the State Health Insurance Agency Bill into Law, saying the laws would transform the healthcare delivery in the State.
He, therefore, called for prompt operationalisation and implementation the Laws so that they could yield the desired results.
“The demands for vaccination and other pressing needs cannot wait for unnecessary bureaucracy.
“The delay in processing some of the requests of the Agency is making our work a bit slow,” Abubakar said.
In his remarks, Gov. Bello commended the Development Partners who had been working tirelessly in conjunction with the agency to improve the state’s health indices.
Bello, who was represented by the Speaker, Kogi House of Assembly, Mr Mathew Kolawole, said that the main objective of MNCHW was to reduce morbidity and mortality in mothers and children less than five years of age.
The wife of the governor, Mrs Rashida Bello, who flagged off the programme, said the improvement of health indices remained the main agenda of the Bello government.
Represented by Mrs Bolanle Amupitan, the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Bello said she was concerned about the vulnerable members of the community, which had made her to focus attention on women and children through her medical outreach foundation.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Audu, said the benefits included provision of Vit. A supplement, De-worming, Family Planning, Ante-natal Care services, immunisation, distribution of drugs and Long Lasting Insecticide treated Nets (LLITN), HIV testing and counseling.
Audu emphasised that the healthcare package would greatly improve the health indices of state and save thousands of Kogi citizens from preventable deaths.
(NAN)
