In its effort to strengthen and secure healthcare facilities at the grasroots, the Abia state government has inaugurated a Strategic Community Health Oversight Team (SCHOT) in Isuikwuato LGA.
Speaking at the event, the Commissioner for Health, Professor Ogbonnaya Uche, explained that the initiative was part of the administration’s wider healthcare reforms, including the renovation, re-equipping and staffing of 200 primary healthcare centres across the 184 wards of the state.
He pointed that the initiative was introduced to ensure that communities are not only beneficiaries of government healthcare projects but also actively involved in protecting and monitoring them.
The Commissioner explained that the Team would help communities monitor primary healthcare centres, ensure that health workers report to duty, protect facilities and alert government whenever problems arise.
Professor Uche said that the Governor, Dr Alex Otti has continued to give healthcare priority attention, noting that government is deliberately strengthening primary healthcare to enable residents access quality medical services closer to their homes instead of travelling to major hospitals for issues that can be handled at the primary level.
He therefore called on communities to revive the spirit of collective responsibility towards healthcare facilities, recalling a community where residents took responsibility for protecting a government-built health centre.
Prof. Uche said the government was also exploring digital healthcare to connect residents in rural communities with Abia medical professionals living in countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, noting that the reforms are beginning to attract positive recognition across the world.
Contributing, the State Consultant on Strategic Community Health Oversight, Professor Kanu Nkanginieme said the team was important to ensure that the reforms in the healthcare are preserved, emphasising that without oversight, government projects in communities would be wasted.
Prof. Nkanginieme stressed that it is the role of the Presidents General to provide updates on the conditions of primary healthcare centres in their areas as well as report progress of work for ongoing ones.
In her remarks, the
Health Authority Secretary Isuikwuato LGA Mrs Nwogu Patricia thanked Governor Otti for the reforms in the healthcare sector and expressed the hope that with the team in place, the primary healthcare centres and other government projects in the local government areas would be well protected.
