Director says PHC provides affordable healthcare
NAN-HG-8
PHC
By Victor Adeoti
Osogbo, Oct. 6, 2016 (NAN) Dr Kayode Oguniyi, the Director of Primary Health Care and Disease Control in Osun, says primary healthcare is an integral part of affordable healthcare delivery in rural communities.
Oguniyi said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo on Thursday.
According to him, since more than 70 per cent of Nigerians dwell in semi-urban areas, primary health care centres remain strategic to their well being.
“The Primary Health Care (PHC) is the pivot upon which other categories of health sector rest and the reason is because majority of our people dwell in the rural areas.
“The essence of primary health care is to ensure that people are able to access health care wherever they live or work.
“The idea is that people should be able to locate a primary health care centre within a radius of five kilometres and that is what we have in Osun.”
Oguniyi said the state have 1,000 PHCs in all the local government areas of the state providing healthcare for pregnant women, children and others who needed medical attention.
He said there was no local government in the state that does not have a comprehensive health centre with a standby ambulance and a health medical officer to attend to emergencies.
According to Oguniyi, due to well equipped PHCs in all the local government areas, the state maternal and child index is about the best in the country.
“At the national level, the indices of maternal and child is 565 per 100,000 deliveries; that is 565 women die per 100,000 deliveries in Nigeria.
“But in Osun, the figure is 165 per 100,000 deliveries and that simply means that we are good.
“Also at the national level, the number of pregnant women that were being attended to by skilled birth attendants is about 70 per cent.
“But in Osun, the figure is 97, that is for every 100 women that attend our PHC, not less than 97 of them were been attended to by skilled birth attendants”.
Oguniyi said the state would continue to provide quality healthcare delivery to the people across the state. (NAN)
VE/KOLE/MST
Edited by Remi Koleoso and controlled by Muhammad Suleiman Tola