« on: January 09, 2009, 06:58:25 PM »
Imoke's 72-page economic blueprint for Cross River State
By Bassey Inyang,
Correspondent, Calabar
While most Nigerians were busy celebrating with fanfare May 29, 2007, a day known as Democracy Day in Nigeria, in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, Governor Liyel Imoke was looking beyond the symbolic celebration of that day as an important epoch in the nation's political history.
Imoke was much more interested in giving to the people what most Nigerians call dividends of democracy - quality service to the citizens - so he invited the people from all strata of the state to the Peregrino Hall, Government House, Calabar, where instead of entertaining them to an extravagant binge, he unveiled his plans for the overall development of the state.
The plan contained in a 72-page document entitled "The Economic Blueprint 2007-2011", with a rider: "Towards Securing Our Future". In the blueprint, the health sector is accorded top priority.
The seriousness accorded to this sector is captured in the following words: "It is clear that the current status of the health sector, with urgent, planned, and sustained intervention required for the people of the state to receive the type of service they deserve. Apart from the need to take care of the health requirements of the people of Cross River State, health services to the people need to be repositioned in order to meet the anticipated needs of the investor community being attracted here through projects such as Tinapa.
"All aspects and components of the state's health care system currently require improvement - infrastructure, equipment, power, water, and manpower development. Weakness of the health care system in the state are demonstrated by the following, among others: "One of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the country, high rates of internal and external brain-drain of health workers, hospitals are ill-equipped, training policies are weak..."
According to data in the state's Ministry of Health, maternal mortality in the state is the worst in Nigeria with a ratio of 2,000 deaths for every 100,000 births recorded, while death rate for children below the age of five years stands at 250 for every 1,000.
But Imoke feels this can change for better and the trend reversed towards the direction of abundant life and sound health for mothers and children. It is believed in most quarters in the state that Imoke's passion for the health sector is derived from his family background, as his father was a renowned medical doctor and his mother a professional nurse.
So, his administration places serious priority in the health sector and the sound health of the people.
To buttress his seriousness, Imoke's focus is on primary health care, which is seen as a policy that could easily provide for the medical needs of millions of people in the state, who had been denied access to medical care.
Besides, the Governor believes that primary health care would serve as shield against secondary diseases whose medical bills most people in the state cannot afford. While delivering his address recently to commemorate the completion of 12,000 free eye surgeries undertaken by the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation (TCF), at the General Hospital, Calabar, Imoke announced that his government had earmarked N2.4 billion for effective delivery of Primary Health Care Programme in the state.
According to the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Edet Ikpi, most of the projects implemented in the state before the emergence of Imoke had little or no bearing on the health sector.
Ikpi said for necessary impact to be made in the health sector, the administration had to evolve an intervention model to tackle the problems associated with delivering quality health services to the vast majority of the people.
He said the state was currently implementing what he described as the Cross River State Health Plan for 2007-2011. The Commissioner added that the administration's focus for now was geared towards Primary Heath Care Programme (PHCP) through the processes of renovation, equipping and data collection.
On many occasions, the state government had stated that it intends to provide at least one functional health centre in every ward, making a total of 196 in the state. From the projection, the state intends to renovate 130 health centres in the first phase of the implementation of the PHCP, besides the 66 health centres already being renovated.
To address the forbidden high maternal and infant mortality rate in the state, the Imoke-led administration in January this year introduced free medical services in public hospitals for pregnant women and children from five years and below.
To ensure the free medical care records success, Ikpi said government had approved formation of Primary Health Care Council (PHCC) to streamline its health intervention programmes in order to derive maximum benefit for its citizenry.
Ikpi said the PHCCy would be made up of chairmen of local government councils, Commissioner for Women Affairs, Commissioner for Social Welfare, Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, members of the House of Assembly Committee on Health, Representatives of Civil Liberty Organisations (CLO) and Faith Based Organisation (FBO).
Ikpi said the council would evolve policies and guidelines for implementation of the programme. In addition to this, the state government recently announced plans to procure an Identification Management System valued at N330 million.
Commissioner for Social Welfare, Mrs. Edak Iwuchukwu, explained that the system was to enhance the use of biometric identity cards for beneficiaries of the free medical services and the conditional cash transfer programme designed to assist poor households of Cross River State origin.
Iwuchukwu said the identity management system was to ensure that the state's social welfare programme was protected from abuse and infiltration so as not to frustrate the process.
She added that facilities and equipment would be used for image capturing and data collection in the 18 local government areas of the state. According to her, the system will serve to fast track progress and stimulate positive impact on life expectancy of mothers and children.
Apart from improvement of the physical infrastructures and medical equipment of the health centres and clinics, the issue concerning medical staff is equally being addressed by the state government to ensure that all departments of the programmes are adequately catered for.
For instance, the government had also renovated the School of Nursing and Midwifery as well as the College of Health Technology, which it strengthened with funds for training of medical personnel.
Government had also ensured the training of at least 1,800 workers on ways of preventing and treating malaria.
It also made available N105 million to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as counterpart fund of 15 per cent of basic salary for enrollees.
According to the Ministry of Health, government had distributed different types and sizes of insecticide treated nets (ITN) to children under five and pregnant women.
Still on the treatment of malaria, the government had distributed 455,000 doses of ACTs donated by Global Fund, and 5,660 doses from the Federal Ministry of Health to the 18 local councils for malaria case management.
