A’Ibom Govt to boost primary healthcare with N300m – Commissioner

Prof. Augustine Umoh, the Commissioner for Health, said this in an interview in Uyo on Tuesday.

Umoh also said that the state government had concluded plans to revive its primary healthcare system through the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund by paying its counterpart funding to access the fund.

He said the basic healthcare provision fund would help to get the primary healthcare system back on track to ensure effective healthcare delivery.

The commissioner said that the fund would also help to implement more equitable and efficient health care financing to provide essential services to the most vulnerable members of the state.

“The primary healthcare is receiving quite some boost right now because the state government has established the Akwa Ibom State Primary Healthcare Development Agency.

“To ensure it functions, the government has released its counterpart funding so that it will be able to meet up with the requirement of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund.

“We have commenced training for enumerators to be able to access our primary healthcare, provides criteria for us to meet up with the basic healthcare provision fund.

“This basic healthcare provision fund would help us to get our primary healthcare system back once activation is done at the shortest possible time.

“We will immediately inject over N300 million into the primary healthcare system and we believe this will give a significant boost to the primary healthcare in the state,’’ Umoh said.

The commissioner said the Ikot Ekpene General Hospital was undergoing rehabilitation for an effective and efficient healthcare delivery system to the Akwa Ibom people.

“Government is going to provide appropriate equipment and personnel when the rehabilitation is completed.

“We have a 200-bed facility in the hospital and we have enough hands to deliver services. The state government is ready to employ more health personnel, especially consultants,’’ he said.

On COVID-19, the commissioner said that the first phase of vaccination in the state had been concluded.

Umoh said the state received 69, 030 doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine from the Federal Government for the first phase of the jab and appealed to the residents to continue to abide by the protocols.