PHCs
By Mercy Osajiugo
Minna, Aug. 30, 2018 (NAN) The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), an NGO, has called for more media investigation into the state of Primary Health Care so as to attract more funds to its centres.
Mallam Auwa Musa, its Executive Director, made the call on Thursday in Minna, at a workshop on basic health care.
“Most primary health centres are poorly equipped and cannot function effectively; funding has been very inadequate. I believe that things will get better if journalists pay more attention to the state of the centres,” he said.
According to him, the dearth of infrastructure, health personnel and equipment has constituted a major obstacle to primary health care in spite of its crucial place in the health care delivery chain.
“The situation of primary health care worsens everyday because financial and political commitment from government is lacking.
“Where there have been pronouncements, they have been partially, or entirely not implemented,” he fumed.
He decried the poor attention to primary health care by state governors and local government authorities, saying that health was placed in the concurrent list to ensure it enjoyed the attention of all tiers of government.
Musa recalled that in January 2017, the Federal Government kicked off a scheme to revitalize 10,000 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), with the provision of 1.5 million dollars to each state and the FCT to deliver quality heath care to women and children.
Musa urged newsmen to investigate the implementation of the project that was tagged “Saving One Million Lives Initiative”.
“Our ultimate goal is to promote the implementation of this policy. We want journalists to investigate and inform the general public about the progress of this initiative since its launch,” he said.
Musa tasked the media to engage respective state government so as to ascertain their commitment to success of the project. (NAN)
MNO/ETS
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Edited by Ephraims Sheyin