There
is no doubt that former governor Peter Obi laid a strong foundation and
his soccessor is consolidating on his achievements, Chief Willie Obiano
assumed duty as Governor, Anambra has made remarkable achievements in
the health sector.[/b] Dr Josephat Akabuike, who is the Anambra State
commissioner for Health attested to this in aninterview with our
correspondent, AMAECHI PERCY ONYEJEKWE, in Awka. He spoke on the
improvements made so far in the health sector in the State. Excerpts
What health care plans do you have for the people of Anambra State?
Anambra
statewants its people to have health in its full entirety as health is
the physical, mental and social well being and not just absence of
disease.And our mission to achieving this is to implement policies that
will help Anambra State to have zero disease body.
Permit our
readers a peep into the primary healthcare system plans to view ways
your ministry intends to achieve this zero disease body for the people.
Let
me quickly get you backwards. The Anambra State government has what it
calls Economic Engine. You have the four pillars of development which is
anchored on Agriculture, Oil and Gas, Industrialization and Trade and
Commerce. And for these pillars to move, there has to be the one we call
the enablers.these are certain things that will enable the economic
engine, and of course that is the health sector, education, and a lot of
them.So that is the structure we operate because this government has a
blueprint. Now let me get back to your question. It is good we started
from the Primary Health Care. Primary health is the basic building block
that is the smallest unit of health care. And it is the one that begins
with the remotest villages and from there it begins to scale up.
So
in primary healthcare, before now the Anambra State or even the nation
at large, there is no organized primary health care since 1990. The
primary health care was actually meant to be managed by Local Government
System but without any clearly defined goals and objectives. And of
course the aftermath is that we find out that the management were not
patterned and that has led to the collapse of many primary healthcare.
So the National Council on Health in 2011 decided to put all the primary
health care under one umbrella, what is called Primary Health care
Development Agency, and states were asked to go to their different
states to make laws that will back this agency.
And I wonder that
before now there was no such board .So It was just last December,
December 23,2015 that through the order of the Anambra State Government
under Chief Willie Obiano. that the Anambra State Primary Health
Development Agency was passed into law by Anambra State House of
Assembly and by January, the Governor inaugurated the board and right
now we have a functional primary health care.And one important thing
about the agency is that one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue will
be coming to that state and will be going straight into the agency that
helps to look into the numerous challenges that is affecting the primary
healthcare.
Before now the primary health care was under the
Local Governments. Because of that they don’t have any clearly defined
role.And that has led to fragmentation that is leading to a total
collapse of the system. This government has structured the primary
healthcare and keyed into the National Primary Health care Development
Agency. Now we have the Anambra State Primary Health care Development
Agency that will take care of all activities of the primary healthcare.
What is primary health care all about?
Thank
you very much. Primary health care can be taken as the smallest unit of
health care where you can have a nurse and few health facilities that
tend to people. They are meant to attend the primary form of first aid
to the people. And they are the greatest in number because they spread
throughout the remotest areas. The secondary health takes care of the
things that the primary health care cannot take like operations and the
ones the secondary health cannot take care of are taken to the tertiary
health care system. It is actually a grading based on their capacity,
the staffing and other things.
What achievement has the government made in the primary healthcare system?
Of
course I have mentioned the Primary health Development Agency and the
importance of this agency. This a board that organizes, take care of all
the problems of the primary health care and a lot of other things, once
you have a structure on the ground most of the problems of the primary
health care will be taken care of. Let me tell you about
229 registered health care centers
the board has taken up this challenge of making sure that they perform.
So, there is now an organized structure put up by Gov Obiano to make
sure that we achieve these objectives. Also in the primary health care
because of the problems we have, because of the remotest areas,there is
the problem of assessment. His Excellency has bought 17 flying boats and
boat ambulances that assist in accessing these remote areas.
Are the 229 primary health centres well spread across the 177 communities in Anambra State?
Of
course they are actually spread based on the political zones and there
is no town that has not got one or two primary health care depending on
their population. Apart from that we are still trying to balance for
some communities that have not got one like Ndi Ukwenu and Okpeze.the
government has taken the responsibility and given me the mandate. And we
are working to make sure that we give them one.
In the primary
health care we have continued to make sure we continued from where the
last administration stopped. And this time around we have decided to
step up any of the 37 general hospitals to specialist hospitals. One of
the reasons we wanted to do that is we want to augment. Right now when
some graduates from the medical school or pharmacists they have some
challenges of having what is called intention, so we have decided to
step up the three hospitals, one in each of the three senatorial zone,
the general hospitals in Onitsha, Enugwu-Ukwu and Ekwulobia. We want to
key into the world best. One thing that is very special about that of
Onitsha, is it has a helicopter landing pad- helipad where emergencies
can be taken even out side the state. So we want to actually have a
state of the art hospital in three of these hospitals they are going to
be special centres comparable to any other hospital in and out side
Nigeria.
What has the government achieved so far in the secondary health care?
In
the secondary health care we have what is called maternal and child
health centres.there is supposed to be one in each senatorial zone, it
is another specialist thing one that will address children and pregnant
mothers. And this is a special area because the federal government wants
to take up the treatment of pregnant women and mothers free -of -charge
.And we want to make sure that we have such institutions in Anambra
State that will benefit from such. Also we are doing re-certification of
health institutions. Now we find out that there was no where in the
past where health is monitored to know what they do, that is why people
go to private hospitals where they don’t have equipment. And you find
out people who claimed to be doctors they are not. You find a lot of
things. We want to sanitize the health sector to make sure that if you
are going to hospital you get the appropriate treatment.So we are doing
intensive re-certification and soonest we are going to clamp down on
most of the hospitals that are not hospitals.or that are not equal to
what it should be to safeguard the lives of our citizens ,especially the
innocent ones.And I also want to tell you that we are building a center
for disease control.It has to be at Awka . The important thing is that
it will help the government to have a place where if you have a
communicable disease they are treated instead of mixing up with every
other kind of treatment. So this is part of what we are doing in the
secondary health care.
We have also taken up the 37General hospitals in the state for innovations. And three of them, General Hospitals Enugwu-Ukwu, Ekwulobia and Onitsha are being upgraded to specialist hospitals.
At
the tertiary level we have put in place all that is needed for the
final accreditation of the School of Nursing at the Odumegwu Ojukwu
University and the and the graduation of Odunegwu Ojukwu University
Teaching Hospital students. We have secured accreditation of the school
of Midwifery and they have started admitting students this year.
We
have reintroduced drug revolving scheme where drug is stored in a
central store to enable them retain their potency, to prevent fake and
maintain drug regulation. We have introduced quality control and drug
Information Centre located in Amaku General Hospital, Amaku. Anambra
State is introducing Universal Health Insurance Scheme to enable
everybody have access to hospital services without regard to money.
Govt
is doing alot in the health system in what can be classified as
primary, secondary and tertiary. That is, the major areas that activity
can be categorized.
How do you react to the allegation that the government is trying to close some drug stores over storage issues?
We
are not trying to close anybody’s shop. We are trying to make sure that
drugs do not lose their potency due to improper storage or poor storage
facility. Drugs are supposed to be stored under normal temperature.
Drugs
lose their potency when they are stored wrongly such as undersunlight,
hot places,etc. That is why we have the medical drug distribution
centre.If you say one storage place is improper you provide a better
alternative. That is what we have done.
Herbal drugs are being advertised and carried about everyday. What is your reaction to that?
We
have banned open sale of drugs, particularly open sale of herbal drugs.
You don’t have to convince people to buy drugs. The effects of wonder
drugs have been kidney failure among others. Anybody that tells you that
one drug cures every thing is a killer. In time we are going to do
something about that.
It is a law that you don’t adverytise
drugs. It is not Anambra law. Herbal medicine are good but we are not
stopping it but we want to regulate it. We want to make sure that they
don’t endanger people’s lives.
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