Ogun tasks LG chairmen, stakeholders on sustained intervention in basic health

By Doris Obinna

Ogun State government has called on local government chairmen and other stakeholders to support and take ownership of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to ensure sustainability.
Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, made the call in Abeokuta during a stakeholders’ meeting on COVID-19 vaccination response, BHCPF and other primary health care centres activities, saying it was imperative to improve the quality of care at the grassroots level.
Coker said BHCPF was a federal and state government-funded initiative to provide free minimum basic health care to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians through accredited PHCs in each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
  “We have been on a journey to improve the quality of healthcare that we deliver at the grassroots level and we want you to take ownership of key interventions and innovative changes. We would like to carry you along so that there will be sustainability. This is why your being here is important,” she said.
  She reiterated that the administration remained committed to ensuring that no child, pregnant woman or adult died due to preventable causes, attributing some avoidable deaths to poor quality medications as a result of varying sources of supply.
The commissioner revealed that the state government had made huge investments in the health sector through the purchase of digital chromatography machines to ensure good quality of drugs in facilities, rehabilitation and equipping of PHCs, as well as recruitment and training of service providers in facilities across the state.
   Executive secretary, Primary Health Care Development Board, Elijah Ogunsola, said the objective of the meeting was to give feedback on the COVID-19 vaccination response and intimate participants on operations of BHCPF, noting that successful implementation of the programmes would depend on strategic planning, effective monitoring and transparency.
  State monitoring and evaluation officer, Kayode Runsewe, reported that 100 per cent and 93 per cent of the Morderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, respectively, allocated to the state had been utilised, adding that there was no reported case of severe adverse effects following immunisation (AEFI).
Coordinator, World Health Organisation (WHO), Dele Sunday, representative of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Olatunde Adebiyi, and her counterpart from the United Nations Children’s Fund, Aishatu Zango, enjoined participants to support government’s efforts at ensuring the wellbeing of residents, especially children, through active engagement and participation in various PHC activities in their localities, promising the continued support of their various organisations in providing technical assistance during immunisation exercise.

Speaking on behalf of his colleague local government chairmen, Babatunde Emilola-Gazal, thanked the Governor Dapo Abiodun-led administration for prioritising the wellbeing of residents, stating that they would ensure the successful implementation of all PHC activities in their respective localities.