Participants at the Anambra State Media Briefing on covid-19 Response Mechanism, Resilient and Sustainable System for Health, said that strengthening of the primary healthcare centres are key to achieving an effective healthcare system in the state.
The event was organized by the Civil Societies Organization on Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition, alongside Tuberculosis Network, as well as the Network of People Living with HIV in Nigeria.
Speaking during the briefing, the South East Zonal Coordinator of Civil Societies Organization Networks for Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition, Professor Dennis Aribodor, said that the impact of covid-19 adversely affected healthcare services especially the primary healthcare which is the closest healthcare centres to the people, and Global Fund thought it wise to strengthen the primary healthcare centres to enable them discharge their functions efficiently.
According to him, for Global Fund to achieve their goals, they engaged the services of Civil Society organizations, governments and critical stakeholders to help them to interface with the communities, identity gaps and formulate policies that would be used to address the gaps noticed and present such to both the governments and the communities.
Prof. Aribodor appealed to the Anambra state government to pay more attention to the primary healthcare centres to ensure that they play their roles without any hindrance.
For the Anambra state Programme Officer, Covid-19 Respond Project, Mr. Wisdom Jacob, the programme which is barely more than one month in the state has achieved a lot because of the pragmatic approach they adopted.
Mr. Jacob said that they have been able to identify gaps in some primary healthcare centres in Anambra, such as lack of drugs, power generating sets, structures among others and explained that through their advocacy visits to the critical stakeholders in the various communities, they have been able to achieve a lot.
He listed some of their achievements which were executed by communities or members of the community to include, the donation of generator set to Nawgu community to their primary healthcare centre, construction of perimeter fence and mounting of gate at Eziama primary healthcare centre at Amichi, donation of a four point one KV generator set to Okpuno Primary Healthcare Centre by a member of the community among others.
The Executive Director, Anambra state Agency for the Control of Aids (ANSACA). Mr. Johnbosco Ementa in his goodwill message at the event commended the various networks for doing a wonderful job in the state, and maintained that his Agency will leverage on the gaps noticed during their findings to do proper planning in order to increase and enhance their services throughout Anambra state.
The groups called on the Anambra state government to continue to support the primary healthcare centres by employing more health personnel to curb shortage of health workers, as well as stakeholders to support them and appealed to the mass media to help disseminate their message by amplifying the need for increased support by the government at all levels.
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