BENIN CITY – In a concerted effort to put Primary Health Care (PHC) activities in Edo State under one roof for effective service delivery, Edo State Commissioner for Health, Dr (Mrs) Aihanuwa Eregie has held an interactive meeting with PHC Co-ordinators from the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.
The Commissioner stated that the meeting was convened to discuss issues militating against the effective implementation of PHC activities in Edo State.
She said that the State Government believes that PHC is an essential health care that should be universally accessible and available to individuals and families in their communities.
According to her, “it is our strong belief that Primary Health Care remains the central function and main focus of Government that can drive the overall social and economic development of our state”.
Towards this end, she said the state has put in place effective coordination of PHC activities and implementation of programmes geared toward meeting the health needs of our people.
Dr. Eregie observed that currently, the state is bedeviled with serious challenges in its implementation of PHC activities, including the collection of vaccines, unacceptable high number of unimmunized children, funding of PHC activities, utilization of Toyota Hilux Vehicles among others.
According to her, the interactive session would enable all stakeholders to discuss the identified issue frankly and find solutions so as to improve and sustain the desired high coverage of PHC activities in the state.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Peter Ugbodaga solicited for the support and co-operation of all stakeholders in the implementation of PHC activities, saying, “we all must work towards one goal to ensure our people at the rural areas who form about 70 percent of the population get quality and effective health care services.”
He stated that to ensure health care delivery service is properly streamlined and co-ordinated, PHC activities must be put under one roof, assuring that the Health Ministry would continue to partner with development partners and donor agencies towards ensuring the best health care delivery services for the people.
The meeting which had in attendance, representatives of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, (NPHCDA), World Health Organisation (WHO), State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, 15 Local Government PHC Coordinators and Principal staff of the Ministry of Health came up with resolutions which are expected to be passed to the appropriate quarters for further action.
Edo State Director of PHC, Dr. Eghe Abe used the opportunity to present to the participants, the overview report of Routine Immunization in Edo State.
Gov. Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole
