From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Ondo state government has been called upon to improve the facilities at the various health care centres in all the 18 Local Government Areas of the
state.
Speaking at a one day roundtable meeting organized to share success stories of efforts made by the Community Based Organisations (CBO) implementing the global fund/NACA/RSSH/C19RM project in the state, Olajumoke Abereowo-Ogunyemi, the State Programme Officer, for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Control, said the team have achieved more through the use of Community Based Organisations to work closely with the health facilities by providing healthcare services at communities and local government of intervention.
According to her, the local governments includes, Owo, Akure South, Akure North, Ilaje, Ondo West as the project is been conducted in 18 states of the Federation.
Abereowo-Ogunyemi said, “the projects are being implemented across the 18 states in Nigeria, in which, Ondo State is one of the benefiting states.
The coordinator stated that the projects are centred on strengthening the infrastructure and also community based organisations in the state. And also to provide solutions to identify gap that is coming out from the primary health care facilities in Ondo State communities.
“In Ondo state, we have five major Local Government Areas where the projects are being implemented which include; Owo, Akure South, Akure North, Ilaje and Ondo West.
“The projects engage 15 based organizations, working to ensure that there is a success in the state with the representatives of these three networks, Network of People living with HIV/AIDS, Civil Society for Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN) and Civil Society for the Eradication of Tuberculosis in Nigeria.
“We believe that government cannot do it alone hence the need for communities to take the ownership and the responsibility to address certain issues that emanated from the facilities where they were given health services.
“This is a call to our government because we believe that they can still do better, they should provide medical personnel, health volunteers like Ad-hoc staff that can be pay stipend and yet they will be improved in their knowledge and skills which will also strengthening the health facilities.
“We also call on the Ondo state residents not to backed out on any government or individual infrastructure projects, instead they should communal come together to ensure that they protect any projects that comes into their various communities.”
Also speaking at the roundtable meeting, two of the CBOs, Junaid Adeyemi-Gold and Austin Ogunleye said government needs to employ more health workers in order to replace those that have traveled abroad.
They said some of the facilities visited lacked staff, drugs, good equipments, electricity, security while some facilities had been abandoned and taken over by hoodlums.
While the state Commissioner for Health, Banji Ajaka, appreciated the groups for complementing government’s efforts at reducing the rate of diseases in the state, he noted that government was doing all in its power to see that all health facilities regain their lost glory.
“We have some organizations in the state, complementing the efforts of the state government in order to improve our health sector because government cannot do it alone. They voluntarily released themselves to visit these grassroots facilities in order to carry out their exercise for the prevention and control of diseases and others in the state,” he said.
Ajaka, who was represented by the Health Promoter/Educator, Ministry of Health, Rosemary Falokun, however, appealed to residents to always patronise government approved hospitals for quality healthcare service.
