Ekiti employs 250 health workers, renovates 103 PHCs

The Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oyebanji Filani, has said that the state government is stepping up efforts to make the healthcare delivery attractive and accessible to people in all parts of the state particularly the grassroots.

Oyebanji said that the state government have employed 250 nurses, midwives and community health officers.

The commissioner spoke at Otun Ekiti on Saturday while rounding off a two-day community mobilisation and stakeholders’ engagements for residents of Ikere, Ekiti Southwest, Moba and Ilejemeje local government areas, which held at Ikere Ekiti and Otun Ekiti.

The government he also said has offered free maternal health and childcare services and as well free laboratory test and malaria treatment for all residents at the 177 primary health centres across the state under the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund and Ulerawa programme if the state government.

He urged the stakeholders to continue to encourage all health-seeking Ekiti residents to make use of health facilities in their communities for adequate and proper medical attention as well as reducing mortality rates.

While responding to the residents’ demands at the different health centres, Oyebanji said that ongoing renovation of PHCs would cater for complaints about electricity, water and fence as all such had been incorporated.

He said that as part of efforts to ensure that the health facilities were attractive, “We are renovating 103 PHCs. They will all be equipped with necessary modern healthcare equipment and infrastructures.

“We are also ensuring that when people get there, they meet with people who have the capacity, who are competent and who can treat them

“We have just employed 250 nurses, midwives and community health officers who are being distributed to the different PHCs to be able to serve and ensure that people have access to services.

Our Drug Management Agency is constantly filled with drugs and we make sure that those drugs get to the facilities.

“And under the Ulerawa programme of the Governor Biodun Oyebanji administration, every single resident in Ekiti has access to defined package of services that are provided in our PHCs.”

Oyebanji added that the state government had begun recruitment of doctors to strengthen health facilities, saying, “We are taking them in batches. Recently, we put up advert for 100 doctors. We have recruited eight, it is continuous employment. Our goal is to ensure that they are sent to places where they are needed. We are also engaging NYSC doctors who we deploy to our facilities.”

The General Manager of Ekiti State Health Insurance Scheme, Dr Charles Doherty, said that services provided at the PHCs such as malaria treatment, immunisation drugs and commodities among others were free of charge across the state.

The State Health Educator, Dr Busayo Ige, urged residents especially pregnant women and nursing mothers to make use of government health facilities for their various health needs.

Ige stressed the importance of vaccinations for children, noting that vaccines helped in building their immunity against deadly diseases.

The Charman of Ikere Local Government, Olu Adamolekun and his Moba LG counterpart, Bamidele Fadugba, hailed the state governor for his various interventions in the health sector which they said had brought significant improvement, increased facility utilisation and improved health outcomes.

The council bosses and stakeholders hailed the state government for involving communities and grassroots in various interventions and plans aimed at improving the health outcomes of the state.