The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, has called on Civil Servants to sign up as volunteers to become champion of Immunization and Primary Health Care in their communities in the Ministry of Health’s initiative to boost primary health care services across the country.
The Head of Service made the call in her address at the opening ceremony of the Sensitization Workshop on Immunization and Public Health Care in Nigeria organized by National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) in collaboration with the Office of Head of Civil Service of the Federation on 14th May, 2018 in Abuja.
The Head of the Civil Service was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Common Services Office in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. A. O. Afolayan. She said the challenges posed to health care delivery in Nigeria, particularly Routine Immunization Services are enormous. It has therefore become imperative to awaken the consciousness of Nigerian civil servants to the realities on ground and get their support in ameliorating the situation.
According to her, the new approach adopted by the Federal Ministry of Health to engage the entire body of the Nigerian Civil Service on mobilization of communities for ownership of immunization and Primary Health Care delivery across the country was a welcome development.
She said that with creative, persuasive and focused oversight by volunteer civil servants, the provision of qualitative primary health care in the country will be a success story in the near future.
“All of us as a matter of civil responsibility should endeavor to spare some minutes and hour of our time whenever we visit our communities to check on goings-on in the community primary health care centres. This will surely create a sense of ownership and accountability by all,” she added.
Speaking earlier, the Honourable Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole said that new initiative is to engage wider stakeholders in tackling the challenges faced in the provision of primary health care services.
He further said that primary health care is the responsibility of everyone, not Government alone, hence the reason of the sensitization workshop for the Civil Servants to enable them contribute their quota to promoting primary health care in their various communities.
Professor Adewole reiterated Government commitments to rehabilitate and revitalized all the existing Primary Health Care (PHC) centres across the country for better service delivery.
In his goodwill message, Dr. Chuma Onochukwu acknowledged the state of decline in maternal mortality in the country, which he said is due to absence of regular immunization. He further said the Civil Servants have a role of creating awareness and to drive Government agenda on PHC.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology Dr (Mrs.) Amina Bello Shamaki also charged the organizer of the event to cascade down the sensitization workshop to State and Local Government Areas for effective Primary Health Care implementation.
Ojedokun Olufemi
S.I.O
For: Director (Information)
