The Executive Secretary, Abia State Primary Healthcare Services (ASPHDA), Dr. Chinagozi Adindu has lauded the Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu for repositioning primary healthcare in the state.
The ASPHDA boss who disclosed this to newsmen in Umuahia, Abia State recently, said that the agency is ahead of its contemporaries in the federation as a consequence of the undiluted support of Dr. Ikpeazu-led administration, adding that the state is in a march to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu
The medical practitioner further revealed that Abia is ranked 1st; having the highest number of children delivered successfully in primary health centre in Abia.
In his words: “The political will given by the state Governor in actualizing primary healthcare under One Roof and the Payment of Counterpart Funds like; Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) and Accelerated Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) have made it possible for Abia to stand out as one of the states in Nigeria to access and commence implementation of Basic Health care provision fund as well as for Abia to benefit from the World Bank funded nutrition intervention programme; ANRiN.
Adindu further explained that the 21st century indigenous innovative concept “dial a doc direct”, an initiative of the Abia Tele-Health Centre has helped in the improvement of quality healthcare and coverage across 722 primary healthcare facilities in the state.
He maintained that ASPHDA in collaboration with the office of the Governor and founder Vicar Hope Foundation, Dr. Nkechi Ikpeazu has launched series of interventions to combat sickle cell disease, cancer, high maternal and infant mortality among others, with good results to match.
“With the support of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the Agency have trained about 4,000 health workers and community leaders on ethology, pathogenesis and control of COVID-19 and other communicable disease in the state”, he further stated.
This, he, described as an uncommon boost in Abia health sector owing to the investments of Gov. Ikpeazu in the health sector.
The primary healthcare boss who further commended the Abia Governor for the massive critical infrastructures put in place across the state especially road infrastructures, maintained that immunization session outreaches to hard-to-reach locations are now easy and accessible.
Adindu said: “The Agency has attracted 233 solar direct drives (solar powered refrigerators) from NPHCDA worth over N1 Billion and installed them in the ward health centres for effective vaccine storage and preservation. The existing gap in human resources has been addressed as 292 midwives have been contracted and deployed to all the wards in Abia through the support of Gov Ikpeazu”.
