HEALTH... HOW GOODLUCK HAS FARED

-Chizaram Stella Eni

With all the challenges facing the nation both politically and socio-economically, the administration of His Excellency Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has not failed to fulfil substantially, the promises made on the transformation of the Nigerian health sector, moving the country to a higher ground amongst other African nations.

Nigeria aspires to join the league of super nations by 2020 and the President's resolve to attain the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 through his transformation agenda is no doubt, commendable and recommendable to other countries in Africa. The health sector to me, is the most outstanding and critical part of the targets set by the MDG framework of year 2000, focusing critically on combating the spread of the HIV/AIDS disease, and improving maternal and child health.

Before the Goodluck administration, a wide range of diseases ranging from polio, measles, meningitis, malaria and the dreaded HIV/AIDS pandemic were on the increase, while the rate of maternal and infant mortality was quite high in the country. The existing hospitals were either in bad shape or were poorly staffed with professional healthcare providers while our rural areas either had no hospitals or the rural dwellers were forced to travel miles in order to access health care services.

Since the birth of the Transformation Agenda, a lot has changed and the health sector has been repositioned to live up to its responsibility. The sector has witnessed remarkable improvements which are in line with the health component of government's Transformation Agenda.

According to Sampson Ikemitang of the Federal Ministry of Information, Abuja, gave a breakdown of some of the remarkable achievements recorded by the Jonathan administration in the rehabilitation, renovation, 

equipping, of federal health facilities and institutions in various parts of the nation;

ü - The Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, lle-ife and the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City have been fully rehabilitated and equipped with facilities and commissioned, while the work on the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Awka and the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar have reached significant stages of completion. 

ü - National Trauma Centres were established at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Abuja and the National Hospital, Abuja. These projects have been completed and are waiting to be commissioned.

ü - The Federal Staff Hospital, Jabi, Abuja, built in collaboration with the Chinese Government has been commissioned and is functional, and is part of efforts to enhance access to quality healthcare. This is in line with the international best practices on disease control and prevention.

ü - The President has doubled the funding for Polio Eradication activities to N4.7 billion with eradication emergency plan developed with an accountability framework.

ü - All the State Governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have reaffirmed their commitment to the government’s immunization programme, by actively and personally leading the quarterly State Immunization Days (SIDS) in their respective states.

ü - New vaccines like the Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM) vaccines that offer protection for at least 10 years as against three years were provided by the Federal Government. This has shut down cases of epidemic outbreak till date.

ü - The Federal Government introduced the Pentavalent vaccines (DPT,HB,Hlb) as a measure to reduce infant mortality as to help protect children against childhood pneumonia and hepatitis B.

ü - National Cancer Screening Centres were established in Federal Medical Centre, Gusau; University of Port-Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt and the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. 

ü - Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was also established in Gaduwa, Abuja, to improve health services in the country.

ü  - Fighting the scourge of fake and counterfeit drugs by (NAFDAC) has also assumed a new dimension with the nation's advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). NAFDAC now deploys the use of ICT in detecting fake and counterfeit drugs.

ü - Stem cell transplant for sickle cell patients was established at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin; as well as the establishment of Geriatric units in federal tertiary hospitals.

Transformation cannot take place without the right knowledge, the right skills and the right attitude through quality education and that is why government reintroduced the overseas component of the residency training programme; and capacity building for health care providers. This is to ensure that health practitioners acquire the maximum skills and exposure needed in a highly skilled and globally competitive environment. To complement the activities of the conventional health experts, government has organised trainings for traditional birth attendants and other local healthcare providers in the rural areas. Such trainings were held by international organisations in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health.

In summary, going by details provided by the Federal Ministry of Health in respect of projects executed under the SURE-P programme, the present administration has been able to provide;

* 500 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the 36 states and FCT.

* Selected 125 General Hospitals across the 36 states and the FCT for rehabilitation.

* Employment and deployment of skilled health workers like midwives, nurses, doctors and Community Health Workers (CHEWs), and Village Health Workers (VHWs).

* Upgrading, equipping and supply of drugs to the 500 PHCs across the six geo-political zones is on-going.

*Equipping and upgrading maternity units and youth friendly centres in selected health facilities throughout the federation to handle complicated maternal and child health related cases.

With all these laudable achievements recorded by the present administration to ensure that Nigerians in both the urban and rural areas enjoy excellent health services, there can be no better wealth in my opinion that can be compared to easy access to qualitative healthcare at one’s door step?

Miss Eni is a Reproductive Health Counsellor. She can be reached on zaraeni@gmail.com