Ex-Minister, Don, Task Stakeholders on Healthcare Delivery

Martins Ifijeh

Stakeholders in the Health sector have advised the ministries of health and education to collaborate in policy developments that will enable the country achieve primary healthcare and health for all.

They urged the States to key into the present State primary health care development agencies (SPHCDAs) drive and establish best well-formed and properly manned ones, for their respective States.

They noted that it was imperative that tackling healthcare delivery problems should not be business as usual, but should be brought under frequent scrutiny in order to find lasting solutions.

The health experts in their different presentations at the 19th edition of Bassey Andah Memorial lecture, held recently, at the Senate Chambers of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, also urged the Federal Government to hand over primary healthcare to the States and Local Governments authorities.

Former Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange, in her keynote address, with the theme “The challenges of healthcare delivery for all ages in Nigeria”, revealed that health challenges occurring in children under five years are preventable, if the parents are educated and have access to primary healthcare clinics, where they can receive more specific knowledge tailored to the specific needs of the family.

She advocated for the prevention of inadvertent early parenthood and sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents, through health screening to ensure a smooth transition into middle and old age, by preventing or treating diseases such as malaria, hypertension, cardiac disorders, obesity, anaemia and cancer.

For Professor Michael Asuzu, of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Ibadan, what the country needs to achieve PHC at the LGA level, with its full two-way referral system and the inter-sectoral integration and collaboration for primary healthcare and health for all (PHC and HFA), is to integrate nursing and midwifery, as primary health profession(s).

According to him, “It will therefore be very easy to realize that until we have looked for and attended to the fundamental need for primary and fully professional (health care or community) nursing and midwifery, we cannot be taken as being any serious in regard of getting health care to all Nigerians everywhere that they are”.

Professor Bassey Andah Foundation is a non-governmental organization (NGO), duly registered in Nigeria for the primary objectives of executing the management and supervision of research into the published and unpublished works of Late Prof Andah, establishment of an Education Trust Fund for the education of needy children and orphans in Nigeria Colleges and tertiary institutions, organizing symposia, workshop and conferences in the field of Archaeology and Anthropology and related disciplines.

The Foundation seeks to establish linkages between universities and similar organizations in Nigeria and the world, to develop a quantum of academic exchange for the benefit of the people of Africa and in the spirit of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).