Bayelsa to deploy 19 doctors, 210 nurses to primary healthcare centres

The Bayelsa State Government has said it will deploy 19 doctors, 210 nurses and midwives, 185 pharmacy technicians and about 50 laboratory medical technicians to primary healthcare centres across the state to strengthen clinical services at the grassroots.

The State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Seiyefa Brisibe, disclosed this on Friday while speaking on the government’s efforts to improve healthcare delivery at the grassroots during a training organised by the Health Emergency Initiative, under the sponsorship of FIRST E&P, tagged First Respondent Training and Medical Intervention Programme.

Brisibe said, “We are deploying 19 doctors, 210 nurses and midwives, 185 pharmacy technicians and about 50 laboratory medical technicians to strengthen the clinical component of our primary healthcare centres.”

He said the deployment was aimed at strengthening the clinical component of primary healthcare centres, which, according to him, were often largely run by community health extension workers and environmental health officers.

He explained that while the roles of the workers were important, there was a need to strengthen clinical services at primary healthcare centres where residents, particularly those in rural communities, first sought medical attention.

He said, “If you look at the scope, community health workers and environmental health workers will do about public health. So in our primary healthcare centres, where my mother, who stays in the village is going to access first, the clinical component is not strong enough.”

The commissioner said the deployment of doctors, nurses and midwives would make primary healthcare centres more attractive to residents and encourage women to seek professional care during childbirth.

According to him, regular visits by medical doctors to rural facilities would also increase patronage and ensure that patients received appropriate care or referrals when necessary.

He said, “If in a society or a community where there are no doctors and they hear that once in 10 days a medical doctor comes to consult in a place where there is a nurse or a midwife, definitely that day people will come.”

Brisibe said the doctors would be deployed across the state’s 18 local government areas and would cover the 24 constituencies.

He explained that areas with difficult terrain and more constituencies would receive more doctors, citing Southern Ijaw, Brass and Ekeremor, which would each have three doctors, while other areas would receive two each.

He said the state would also deploy 210 nurses and midwives, 185 pharmacy technicians and about 50 laboratory medical technicians, while a smaller number of environmental health officers would also be engaged.

Brisibe said the deployment was expected to improve healthcare outcomes by ensuring that residents had access to qualified medical personnel closer to their communities.

He said, “The whole thing is to strengthen the clinical component of our primary healthcare so that we can still meet demand. And I believe that that is going to give us the desired outcomes.”

The commissioner said the recruitment and deployment process had reached the final stage, with the government having completed the necessary capturing of personnel.

He added that the workers were expected to commence their assignments within the month.

Brisibe said the government would continue to ensure that every health intervention had a clear objective capable of improving healthcare outcomes for Bayelsans.

He said, “For anything we do, we try to see that there must be a reason for doing it so that our health outcomes are going to improve.”

Also speaking at the event, the Executive Director, Corporate Services, FIRST E&P, Emmanuel Etomi, said the initiative was important because timely intervention during emergencies could determine whether a victim survived.

Etomi said, “During a medical emergency, road traffic accident, cardiac arrest, or other life-threatening incident, the difference between life and death can be measured in minutes.”

He said there was a need to equip young people with the knowledge of what to do during emergencies, particularly before professional medical help could be accessed.

According to him, the training would enable the students to respond appropriately when faced with emergencies at school, at home, on the road or within their communities.

He said, “A real challenge exists in ensuring that people within our communities know what to do before professional help arrives.”

Etomi explained that the Health Emergency Initiative was helping to bridge the gap by making timely emergency assistance available and promoting affordable immediate care across the country.

He disclosed that HEI had previously benefited from the 2025 Impact FIRST Grant Programme, a flagship initiative of the NNPC Limited/FIRST E&P Joint Venture.

He said the organisation had utilised the grant to expand its provision of lifesaving medical assistance and emergency-response training.

Etomi further disclosed that HEI was among the five inaugural beneficiaries of Impact FIRST: Heritage, a multi-year funding programme launched by the NNPC Limited/FIRST E&P Joint Venture to provide long-term support to organisations with strong governance, measurable impact and sustainable results.

He said the selection of HEI reflected the confidence of FIRST E&P in the organisation’s leadership and capacity to deliver meaningful impact.

“This marks a transition from grant-making to long-term partnership. It reflects our confidence in HEI’s leadership, delivery model and ability to create meaningful, measurable impact,” he said.

The FIRST E&P executive director said healthcare could not be left entirely to medical professionals, stressing the importance of creating a wider network of people capable of recognising emergencies and taking appropriate first-aid measures.

He described the training of the students as an investment in community resilience, saying the knowledge acquired could help them respond when a fellow student, family member or community resident was in distress.

“The knowledge gained today can turn helplessness into informed action and may make the difference between life and death,” Etomi said.

He urged the students to share the knowledge gained with their colleagues, families and communities, noting that their skills could help ensure that vulnerable people received timely assistance during emergencies.

Etomi commended HEI for bringing the medical outreach and training programme to Bayelsa State and expressed optimism that the partnership under Impact FIRST: Heritage would help deepen and expand its impact.

He also thanked the Bayelsa State Government, health professionals, community stakeholders, volunteers and the HEI team for supporting the programme.

Speaking earlier, the Executive Director and founder of HEI, Paschal Achunine, said the initiative was aimed at changing the attitude of bystanders from recording emergencies on social media to taking proactive steps to save lives.

Achunine said the programme had been implemented in several states, with participants subsequently sharing the knowledge acquired with others in their schools and communities.

“Our expectation is that as opposed to the current practice, where people take pictures and videos and put on social media when an emergency happens, we’ll see more proactive response, a robust response from young people,” he said.

The HEI founder said the participants were trained in basic first aid, CPR and other pre-hospital skills, adding that the intervention could improve the survival chances of accident victims and people suffering cardiovascular emergencies.

He said, “We’ve seen a lot of high-profile people, young persons, adults, who slumped, and some were in their office, some were on the road, and people around were pouring water, doing nothing positive to save them or to offer them CPR. So this is to change that story.”

Achunine noted that road traffic crashes were responsible for a significant number of deaths among young people, stressing that equipping students with emergency-response skills could help reduce preventable deaths.

He also disclosed that more than 30 per cent of deaths in Nigeria occurred during the pre-hospital stage, describing the initiative as a proactive effort to address the challenge.

According to him, HEI has operated a post-crash care programme since 2017 through partnerships with organisations including the Federal Road Safety Corps and hospitals, providing up to N100,000 in deposit support for critically injured crash victims taken to hospitals.

He said the first responders’ training was designed to complement the intervention by ensuring that appropriate lifesaving action was taken before victims reached hospitals.

“This is a further sweetener to ensure that not only when people are critical, but at the early phase of that pre-hospital emergency, more lives can be saved,” Achunine said.

He disclosed that HEI had also partnered with the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council to integrate emergency health education into the school curriculum.

Achunine said approval had been obtained from the relevant authorities to introduce the programme into composite subjects in primary and secondary schools.

“In the coming months, in the new academic year, we’ll start seeing emergency health education, which is a more robust version of this training conducted in parts and conducted with practical applications in secondary and primary schools,” he said.