Enugu Strengthens Roll-Out Of 260 Healthcare Centres

Gideon Arinze in Enugu 

The Enugu State Government has strengthened the roll-out of 260 Type 2 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) across the 260 wards in the state as part of efforts to improve healthcare delivery across the state. 

This was even as the administration said it had reduced by over 400 per cent, the national average maternal mortality of 512 deaths per every 100,000 live births, which it inherited.

Speaking when he visited one of the facilities at Otukwu community in Emene Enugu, at the weekend, state governor, Peter Mbah stressed that his administration was intentional in disrupting the unacceptable poor state of the primary healthcare system from the outset, as a healthy population and workforce was at the core of his government’s vision to grow the state’s economy from $4.4bn to $30bn.

He explained that the PHCs were not just about the buildings, but about world-class equipment, including staff quarters and renewal energy to ensure availability of manpower and electricity 24 hours of the day in the 260 PHCs in the state.

“Some of the data that we saw when we came in were very disturbing. The data on maternal mortality was unacceptable and we immediately recognised that we had to do something very quickly, particularly in our primary healthcare subsector,” he said. 

Speaking further, he said “we recognise that there is no reason our women, who are pregnant will not be able to get quality healthcare at any time of the night or day, hence the staff quarters and renewable energy. This is essentially responsible for the intervention you are seeing in the primary healthcare space,”.

He maintained interventions at the primary level are also going on at the secondary facilities, adding that his administration was also revamping 22 cottage and general hospitals.

Mbah emphasised that the Otukwu, Emene, PHC, was in line with his administration’s inclusive governance model where people did not need to know anyone in government for development to get to them.

He added that his administration would in addition build a Type-3 healthcare facility in their area to ensure full access to healthcare services by the dense population.

He commended the Council Chairman of Enugu East LGA, Hon. Beloved Dan Anike, for enrolling 5,000 persons into the Enugu State universal health coverage and urged other chairmen to do the same.

In her address, the Executive Secretary of the Enugu State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Ifeyinwa Ani-Osheku, described the governor’s interventions in the primary health subsector as radical and life-saving.

She explained that the state-of-the-art PHC Otukwu, Emene, which had commenced work about three weeks ago had registered 140 residents, while two babies, named Peter and Ndubuisi by their parents, had been delivered in the facility.