Gov. Otu On Course To Reposition C'River Health Sector
By Information Officer, Governor's Office
Different strokes for different folks is a popular maxim, used variously to explain life's phenomena. Basically, the understanding of the saying, by the generality of people is that different methods could be applied to explain or solve problems and challenges facing society or people.
How ever elementary the application of the phrase may seem, its application to the development of the health sector could imply that every rung of healthcare development calls for different approaches, but sustained effort to make it better.
Healthcare, like education, needs to be given priority attention. A school of thought the Governor Bassey Otu-led administration aligns with in toto.
There are three levels of healthcare. The primary, secondary and tertiary. Each requires different things - amenities, or facilities, manpower and effective management for any significant progress to be made.
However, the needs of health sector are not only diverse in nature, but capital intensive. It is worthy of recognition that the present administration, ably led by Governor Bassey Otu, is desirous of putting in place an effective, quality, accessible and affordable health care system that guarantees healthcare to all of our people as a right. In his first year in office, Otu has demonstrated avowed commitment to improving the quality of health services in the State through the exhibition of political will to provide funding for the smooth running of the sector, as well as provide manpower, and relevant infrastructure for effective service delivery.
The decision of the present administration to bring healthcare under one roof is far from scoring a cheap political point, rather, it is borne out of affection and penchant for effective healthcare service delivery.
The palpable rebirth of the health sector of Cross River State can no doubt be seen as keeping to both his political promise and the altruism for the wellbeing of the citizens. After all, the success of a state or country is measured, largely, by the health and well-being of its citizens.
Like other inherited liabilities, Governor Otu, on assumption of office on May 29, 2023, met the health sector at its lowest ebb; lacking both in manpower and infrastructure. The governor immediately declared the human resource problem plaguing the health sector an emergency situation in the state. The immediate steps taken to address the ailing situation are: Lifting of the embargo on recruitment of critical staff; recruitment of staff; redistribution of staff from urban locations to underserved rural communities; implementation of improved conditions of service aligning with those obtained in federal service.
Consistent with its 'People First' mantra, the present administration's policy thrust in the health sector is systematically built on the three critical pillars, namely: improved access, affordability, and quality of healthcare service delivery.
It is worthy of note to shed some light on how these pillars are returning vitality to the hitherto declining health sector of Cross River State.
• IMPROVED ACCESS:
(i) Governor Bassey Otu has so far demonstrated the political will by increasing the budgetary allocation for healthcare from the previous six percent to an appreciable 13 percent of the total State's budget.
(ii) Revitalization of at least one Primary Health Centre in each of the 196 political wards in the State to address shortages in infrastructure, human resource and general health services. According to the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Henry Egbe Ayuk, before the end of 2024, additional 200 Primary Health Centres would be upgraded to provide functional health services to Cross Riverians and residents of the State.
Additionally, the Governor, as build up to his first anniversary in office, flagged off the Palliative Healthcare Programme, which involves providing free medical services to the vulnerable populations, especially pregnant women, children under five years and the elderly (from 70 and above).
The present administration is uplifting the infrastructure of health facilities and equitably doing so across the State. The flag-off of the construction of General Hospital Ikom, which is intended to support medical services in the old Ikom (Boki, Etung and Ikom).
To further ensure that health commodities get to patients in hard-to-reach areas, the State Government has maintained partnership with Zipline Logistics Company for aerial movement of drugs and other essential items through drones. So far, over 450,000 medical units of drugs have been successfully flown to facilities in the northern and central parts of the State. The Otu-led administration has promised to replicate same in the southern senatorial district within the year.
• AFFORDABILITY:
(i)The currently operates a health insurance scheme that supports a significant proportion of civil servants in the State. The scheme is being invigorated to also cover the informal sector.
(ii) The State's Palliative Healthcare Programme, like health insurance, will also ensure both access and reduction in out-of-pocket expenditures for health services by Cross Riverians and residents of the State.
The Otu-led administration is entrenching free medical outreaches, especially in hard-to-reach communities to reduce spending on healthcare by citizens in such locations.
• QUALITY:
The key focus of the present administration is not only to ensure access and affordability to health services, but to improve the quality of such services.
To streamline quality as an important aspect of of the health system, the Governor has inaugurated the State Anti-Quackery Taskforce and empowered it to mitigate all manner of quackery and other untoward practices in the health sector within the extant policies of the State.
Additionally, some centres have been developed to ensure that the poor in particular have affordable and quality services. In this regard, the State, in collaboration with UNFPA, has built a fistula centre, as well as a medical oxygen plant at General Hospital Calabar, to address the quality needs of patients in the State and other neighbouring states and countries like Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
By matching actions with words, Governor Bassey Otu has made availability, accessibility and quality healthcare a plausible reality in the State. To put things into perspective, the ongoing construction of General Hospital Ikom, ongoing mapping and renovations of Primary Health Care sites for the Governor's Health Palliative programme for pregnant women, children under five and elderly above seventy, construction of new PHCs and revitalization of old ones, example new PHCs at Akor and Ndebeji in Akamkpa LGA.
The renovation of critical health infrastructure damaged by ENDSARR protest like the rejuvenated Central Commodity Warehouse at Barracks Road and Microbiological Reference Laboratory at Dr Lawrence Henshaw Memorial Hospital, Calabar South, the UNICEF-donated Medical Oxygen Plant at General Hospital Calabar, UNFPA-supported Fistula and Gender-Based Violence Centre at GH Calabar, strategic partnership with Zipline Logistics Company to convey drugs to hard to reach communities through Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with a nest at Ndok, Ogoja LGA, recalibration of of tricycle ambulances to support Health palliative programme, institutionalization of Health Quality and Anti-Quackery Taskforce and training of the same at General Hospital, Calabar.
Others include the acquisition of 3.5 hectares of land at Obudu to expand the College of Nursing Science, strong surveillance system that contained outbreaks of cholera and Lassa fever. The few enumerated strides cap a picturesque journey of the present administration in its first one year.
His choice of Dr. Henry Egbe Ayuk as Commissioner, and later appointments of Dr. Ekpo Ekpo Bassey to serve as Special Adviser on Health, as well as Dr. Vivian Otu as the Director General, State Primary Health Care Development Agency has made it ostensibly evident that the one-year old administration of Governor Bassey Otu is indeed poised to revitalize the health sector of the State. In the past one year, the health sector of Cross River State has witnessed staggering repositioning efforts. Inter-agency cooperation has become the sector's hallmark, with every parastatal and department under the sector recording significant strides in the year under review (which would be a separate publication in themselves).
Suffice to say, conclusively, that the present administration's health sector performance under one year, has rekindled hope for a workable health system. With inexorable progress made so far, it has become an incontrovertible fact that Governor Bassey Otu is indeed staying the course in his bid to entrench an accessible, quality and affordable health care system that would better the lot of citizens of the State.
