Gombe State Gov’t Upgrades 114 PHC’s

The Gombe state government has said that it has rehabilitated 114 Primary Health Facilities (PHCs) to enhance access to quality healthcare service delivery at the grassroots and has also adopted a multi-task approach geared towards improving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the state.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr Habu Dahiru, said this while responding to a survey by the News Agency of Nigeria on revisiting PHCs, on Thursday in Gombe and added that the state government in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had equipped 114 PHCs, to encourage optimum service delivery at the grassroots.

According to Mr Dahiru, the state government is conducting medical outreach to identify and referral of malnourished children and pregnant women not attending antenatal clinics through the adoption of a multi-task approach.

He said that over 600 health personnel comprising midwives, Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW) and Junior Community Extension Workers (CHEW) had been deployed to PHCs across the 11 local government areas of the state.

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The state, he said, activated immunisation and surveillance teams to ensure rapid response to preventable diseases and outbreaks.

“We preposition drugs in such a way when an outbreak occurs, we ensure to do what is necessary. The most challenging thing is despite the presence of equipped facilities, some women only attend antenatal but don’t deliver in the hospital. What we are doing now is to have a scheme where Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) that bring in a woman to deliver in the hospital will be given incentives.”

This, he said, encouraged expectant mothers to come to the hospital for delivery and get the first dose of immunisation.

He stated that such measures would assist in reducing the maternal and infant mortality indices in the state.