THE Ondo State Government has reiterated its commitment to qualitative primary health care delivery to the people of the state.

Dr Francis Akanbiemu, the Executive Secretary of the Ondo State Primary Health-care Development Agency, made this disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Akure.

Akanbiemu said that the state government had a mandate to re-brand and reposition primary health-care system in order to render qualitative health care to all and sundry.

“What we are doing is to ensure that we change the narrative in Primary Health Care (PHC) system in Ondo State and ensure that it is sensitive and responsive to the people of the state.

“This is one of the cardinal points of Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu-led administration; to improve health care delivery in the state through workable indices,” he said.

The Executive Secretary noted that the the state government was working assiduously to achieve five stipulated principles of PHC.

“The first principle of PHC system is the equitable distribution of health resources and the governor has procured medical equipment to no fewer than 300 health facilities across 203 wards in the state.

“These equipment were inaugurated just last week Friday apart from the ones provided in August 2018.

“Our target is to make all the health facilities work very well; the equipment were distributed evenly and they are being monitored so that those at the remote areas can have access to good health services.

“Secondly, the state government is doing great in the prevention and health promotion, which means that our staff need to be trained.

“Prevention is key to effective primary health care delivery and just recently, our staff were trained at the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo and it cut across all principles of PHC,” he said.

Akanbiemu added that appropriate technology was another principle of the PHC, which the government had carried out effectively, saying that the equipment procured did not require special skill to operate.

According to him, the PHC in the state has engaged community participation in all its activities so that all its programmes will be successful.

“Members of the community are active members of the PHC system in the state. They are even signatories to its bank account and there is no project on PHC that will not be discussed with them.

“Also, we have good collaboration with ministries and agencies because inter-sectoral collaboration is the fifth principle of the PHC system.

“This is important to inform them that they need to formulate policies that are in tandem with the targeted aims of the PHC.

“For instance, we work with the water corporation and the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that potable water and food security are guaranteed respectively,” he explained.

The executive secretary lauded the state governor for responding to the yearnings of medical needs, which he said had improved tremendously the health sector in the state.

“Before this administration came on board, Ondo State was at 66 per cent on health assessment level but it is now 80 per cent on realistic data, and this is not a mean achievement,” he said.

Akanbiemu stated that the agency had also embarked on the training of its workers on good relationship with the community, saying that it was necessary for the community to have confidence in them.

“We have trained our staff and we do monitor them and get feedback from all stakeholders. Good relationship is a core component of the PHC so that the people will have confidence in us and our services,” he said.(NAN)

– Apr. 3, 2019 @ 13:09 GMT |