By: Felix Ikpotor
The House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services have commended the Rivers State Government for improving healthcare delivery in the state especially at the primary healthcare levels.
Chairman of the Committee, Amos Gwamna Magaji stated this when he led members of the committee on an oversight visit to Rivers State.
The committee who were in the state to monitor the utilisation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, said they are impressed with what the state government is doing at the primary healthcare levels especially assigning of doctors to man the various primary healthcare centres in the state.
Magaji said: “First of all, let me commend the government and people of Rivers State for what they have done to improve on the primary healthcare delivery in the state.
”This is one of those states where we went to a primary healthcare centre and we saw a medical doctor there and it’s quite impressive that a state would mobilise doctors inspite of the scarcity of human resource for health and ensure that there is a doctor in primary healthcare and I think that’s commendable”.
He encouraged healthcare seeking members of the public to visit the facilities to access healthcare.
”Many of the structures we went especially the level 3 facilities, they are good and we encourage people to visit them, use them because the purpose of bringing primary healthcare is to bring health closer to the people; and so if people are not using it then the purpose is defeated,” he emphasized.
The Committee Chairman however, urged the government to provide electronic monitoring devices in the facilities to enhance monitoring real time medical records and information generation and enhancing performance of the workers.
”We discovered that they are not connected with electronic medical records where they have real time information generated and encourage. They should be able to have a dashboard especially the primary healthcare facilities where they see every activity going on in their facility and I think that would strengthen monitoring, supervision and ofcourse help the workers there to be on their toes to deliver on their mandate,” he advised.
Magaji encouraged the government to continue on its trajectory in the primary healthcare provision and ensure that in the nearest future all localities have a functional level 2 and 3 healthcare facility.
The Committee Chairman explained further that the essence of the visit round the states is to also check the functionality of the funds and to see whether states are contributing their own quota and equally find avenues for improvement.
”We are trying to fastrack the visits because very soon the budget will be presented to the House and we want to make informed decision looking at the budget and we are also thinking of having a line item in the budget for immunisation, so we want to know with the resources that many states are receiving, and then also know their contributory parts,” he stated.
Earlier, the permanent secretary of the State Ministry of Health, Prof. Justina Jumbo who represented the Commissioner, Dr Adaeze Oreh, said the state remains steadfast in utilizing the BHPF and other federal government releases to provide access to healthcare for citizens of the state especially those at the grassroots.
”In Rivers State, the Ministry of Health remains steadfast in it’s judicious utilisation of all health related funds including the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund to expand access to quality healthcare for our people particularly those in the rural and underserved communities,” Jumbo stated.
She added that the ministry’s collective goals aligns with the Federal Government’s vision and the committee’s mandate to achieve universal health coverage in the country.
The permanent secretary disclosed that the ministry’s programmes have been able to revitalise the 135 primary healthcare centres in the state, expressing the hope that the visit by the committee would enhance further collaborations between the various arms of government.
”Impacts programmes have been equally impactful in revitalising 135 primary healthcare facilities.
”We are confident that your findings and recommendations from this exercise will further strengthen inter-governmental collaborations and enhance the efficient deployment of resources for improved health outcomes nationwide,” she added.
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