C'River Health Commissioner Debunks Betta's Claim, Admits State Has 30 Doctors In Its Service
By Victor UDU
As part of renewed efforts to address challenges in the health sector, the Cross River state government has disclosed that it has only 30 Medical Doctors in its payroll.
The state Commissioner for Health,Dr Henry Egbe Ayuk made the revelation in his address to the press marking the World Health Day with the theme: My health, my right yesterday in Calabar.
Dr Ayuks disclosure contradicts the earlier figure of 105 earlier tendered as total number of Doctors by a former Commissioner for Health in Governor Ben Ayade's administration, Dr Beta Edu.
The Health Commissioner stance is in agreement with Dr Agam Ayuk one time Chairman of Nigerian Medical Association admitting the deficit in the critical sector which he said was caused by poor remuneration and other working conditions that did not meet current demands.
The NMA Chairman had stated that until government addresses issues under contention the brain drain will continue and government may not be able to retain services of this very important professionals.
NMA had revealed that Cross River has not only the least number of Medical Doctors in It's employ but they are the least paid nationwide.
Speaking on the challenges of the health sector ,the Commissioner for Health, Henry Egbe Ayuk disclosed that the current administration did not meet up to eight pharmacists in its service but pointed out that it has doubled significantly and that the sector was receiving due attention from the administration.
Ayuk said the state has 196 functional primary health centers out of the existing 1045 and assured of government deliberate efforts towards upgrading additional 450 to bring the total number of functional facilities to 600.
According to Ayuk"Yes we're having challenges, today we have 1045 primary health facilities but the structural ones that are functional are about 196 PHC Centres.
We expect that within the next two years we will upgrade it to 450 and bring the total number of functional facilities to 600".
The state health boss said government was poised to grow the National Healthcare Provision Fund currently assisting states and promised to leverage on this while also accessing funds from the world bank for it's impact programmes.
Addressing the media also the Coordinator, Cross River state Anti-Quackery Taskforce, Dr Dan Abubakar acknowledged the extensive damage the practice has brought to bear in the state and solicited for collaboration with the media to stamp out the menace.
