C'River Gov't Seeks Ways To Bridge The Gap In Healthcare Delivery
By Ebi COLLINS
The C'River Commissioner for Health, Dr Henry Egbe Ayuk has called on Health care Practitioners to seek ways to identify gaps that have hindered effective health care delivery and adopt measures towards addressing them.
The Commissioner made the call, Tuesday, while declaring open a 4-day Viral Hepatitis Operational Plan Development Workshop for Healthcare Professionals and other stakeholders, held at Monty Suites, Calabar.
He pointed out that identifying the gaps is an aspect that the Stakeholders should handle, as a matter of importance, and proffer possible solution to provide the necessary support that would help the State improve on its healthcare delivery for a healthy society.
Dr. Ayuk averred that healthcare service delivery should not be left for government alone, and called for collaboration by development partners and supporting organisations to boost the healthcare of the citizenry.
He explained that the thrust of the present administration is to reach out to the vulnerable population, especially those in the hard to reach areas and recalled that few weeks ago, the State Governor, Senator Bassey Otu, in his magnanimity had extended health parliatives through provision of Vaccines and some basic drugs to children under 5years, pregnant women and aged people in hard-to-reach areas in the Northern Senatorial District of the State through drones, with a promise to replicate same in the south soon.
The Commissioner said the workshop, put together by the collaborative effort of the Ministry of Health and JHPIEGO is aimed at developing an operational plan to reduce the transmission of viral hepatitis in the state, in line with the resolution of the 2016 National Council on Health which called for the establishment of state-specific Viral Hepatitis Control Programmes in the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory.
Ayuk assured of facilitating a soon-to-be meeting between implementing partners and the Governor.
"The state government is committed to curbing the spread of the deadly disease by allocating sufficient resources for the successful implementation of the programme towards the benefit of Crossriverians.
In an address, the Country Director of Jhpiego Nigeria, Dr Adetiloye Oniyire represented by the Project Director, Dr. Victor Adepoju, charged participants to come up with a comprehensive strategic plan for the state government to incorporate in its agenda.
Adepoju identified possible areas of collaboration with the state to include, joint investments, technical assistance, training and provision of other sources of support to Cross River, stressing however that the state must contribute its quota.
"We are here to help Cross River develop a strategic plan from 2024 to 2026. Hepatitis B and C is a killer, it kills more people that HIV and it has been neglected for so long.
"We are going to prioritize high risk population in our plans in this elimination roadmap in Cross River State.
"The expectation is to have a final Cross River State strategy plan for Hepatitis B and C, showing clearly how the state will go about the elimination plan between now and 2026 and of course, to have a costing plan and a resource mobilization plan, stating clearly how the state is going to mobilize resources inwardly through budgetary allocation, through the release of funds, through partners like JHPIEGO as well as other partners and commitment from Cross River State government in terms of counterpart funding, because the partners alone cannot do this, the partners will expect the state to move first, if they move one step then the partners will take two steps but no steps, will be taken that the state does not show that financial and political will in the area of Hepatitis elimination," he said.
