Concerned about the growing flight of health professionals from the civil service, the Cross River State government has decided to launch a scheme geared towards sustainable engagements of medical workers.
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The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Egbe Ayuk disclosed to journalists in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria that the scheme would minimize to a great extent the flight of medical doctors especially.
Dr. Ayuk also stated that the initiative, alongside other interventions, would serve to enhance access and improve quality of service delivery to people across the state especially those in hard to reach communities.
He said, “In Cross River State, the universal health coverage is being addressed with the paramount interest of ensuring equity to all. We are doing this through the fulfilment of five main pillars, which will be addressed to guarantee the rights of every citizen to quality and affordable healthcare services.
“One of the pillars is to ensure that we have adequate human resources. In the months ahead, the governor, Senator Bassey Otu would be rolling out a programme in which we would commence the engagement of healthcare staff that can compare with their counterparts elsewhere.
“The focus of this programme would take into consideration the differential that exist between those employed by the state government and others especially in the teaching hospitals, which is actually the bane in the health sector. The financial aspect would be addressed so that their emoluments would be on the same scale,” the health commissioner stated.
Ayuk said, “The scheme would adequately address the differential and I am sure in a few weeks or so, you would be informed about what we have put in place. Other pillars include subsidized healthcare financing system at least for the poor, vulnerable and elderly.”
Health Palliative
According to him, the governor would perform an official launch of the free medical programme called the Health Palliative Programme, noting that the programme was already approved and money released to kick off the free medical services beside the existing treatment for pregnant women, nursing mothers and children below age five.
He said, “This programme would address free services such as antenatal care for very poor pregnant women particularly in the villages. It would also target children under one year old and people above 70 years; we will be able to address their basic healthcare needs.”
The health commissioner said other pillars include strengthening the primary healthcare system and the health insurance system, explaining that there was need to have a strong primary healthcare architecture in Cross River State where every household can access a centre within 5 kilometres from their residence.
“Health is not a privilege; everyone must have access to quality services. There must be access universally to quality healthcare services. It is our collective responsibility to ensure people enjoy affordable healthcare services not only in Calabar and other urban centres, but across the 196 wards,” he added.
