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From: BillyGraham, Abel, Yola
Over two million women and children in 226 health facilities across in Adamawa State, through community services, have been reached with several healthcare services, the UNICEF has said.
The reach was attained through a joint European Union-UNICEF funded ‘Support for the Upscale of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Outcomes’ project in Adamawa and Kebbi states in northern Nigeria, UNICEF health specialist Bauchi head office, Dr. Halima Abdu said.
Dr. Abdu made the disclosure, on Wednesday, during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Adamawa State Government and UNICEF.
The MoU was meant for strengthening Human Resource for Health, aimed at improving maternal, newborn and child health services in the state.
Explaining the details of the MoU, Dr. Abdu said, “UNICEF Nigeria will, through the MoU, support the strengthening of training capacity of Adamawa State School of Nursing and Midwifery.”
Halima explained that the MOU will afford, “10 tutors of the school to undergo further training to acquire post graduate diploma training in education, so as to improve their teaching skills for improved output of quality human resource for health and thus increase the student tutor ratio by threefold.”
The MOU will also bridge the gap for the tutors who would be on a one year training by recruiting 10 temporary hired hands to cover the tutorship positions for the period of the one year the permanent tutors will be away.
Dr. Abdu said the strong and successful partnership between the Adamawa State Government and UNICEF has led to the state emerging topmost in the delivery and implementation of primary healthcare service in the country following the report of 2016 National Health Survey.
“Adamawa’s emergence as the best in health services in the country was as a result the commitment of health workers in providing health services especially at the primary level in spite of inadequate number of skilled personnel at all tiers of the health sectors leading to improved patient outcome and a subsequent better care.”
She explained that the success has led to the approval of another grant for the continuation of the project now titled, ‘’Support to Strengthening Primary Healthcare and Community Resilience for Improved Maternal , Newborn Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) between 2016-2020.’’
The new project will involve capacity development for health workers, supplies and strengthening of health system co-ordination in primary healthcare centers in the state.
The UNICEF Health Specialist, however, decried what she described as a need gap of nurses and midwives required to address health care provision in Adamawa State.
Abdu said the estimated need gap stands at about 2500 nurses and 3500 midwives according to a recent staff audit. The audit shows an impending health crises as a result of aging workforce requiring a sustainable replacement.
Director Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Abdullahi Belel says, “The provision of quality health service is critical to the quality of healthcare any society enjoys.”
According to Belel, “Adamawa has the most improved healthcare services in the country as a result of the visionary leadership of the commissioner of health, Dr. Fatima Atiku Abubakar.”
He commended the ingenuity of the commissioner in forging a synergy between all the health sectors in the state leading to a cumulative effect of remarkable improvement in health services in the state.
