FCT primary healthcare board to improve access to health facilities

The Acting Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Health Care Board (PHCB), Abuja, Dr. Ndaeyo Iwot, has unveiled the board’s plans to make primary health care more accessible to the residents. Iwot disclosed the strategies in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja. “We are setting up primary health care posts in 100 rural communities to be jointly controlled by the communities and also providing required first aid treatments to these farming communities. “The idea of primary health care post was approved in 1978 at the International Conference on Primary Health in Alma Mata in the defunct Soviet Union. “However, it has been neglected in Nigeria but we are revisiting the idea this year,” he said. He revealed that the existing 235 Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities within the FCT were inadequate to cater for the needs of the people within the territory. “We have 235 primary health care facilities in the FCT, but I can tell you that they are inadequate to cater for residents, especially the rural communities of the territory. Iwot said that the board recorded high performance in prevention and management of diseases in 2018, while promising to do more in 2019. “We held campaigns against polio and we recorded 98 per cent success, and 106 per cent success in our yellow fever campaign,’’ he added. He said that the challenges of inadequate funding of primary health care would be partly addressed by the recently introduced Basic Health Provision Fund of the Federal Government. “Funding has been a challenge, but right now, we are encouraged by the introduction of the Basic Health Provision Fund by the federal government. `This implies that one per cent of government revenue would be dedicated to the improvement of primary health care, and the FCT is amongst the firsts to benefit from this fund,’’ he said. Iwot said that primary health care workers in FCT would soon be trained on attitudinal changes and the need to have empathy in relating with the communities.