An Ilorin-based Caregiver, Jimoh Ibrahim says the Community Health Workers in Primary Healthcare Centres across the 16 Local Government Areas of Kwara State are grossly inadequate to respond to health challenges of the people at the grassroots.
Ibrahim, who is the Secretary, National Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria, Kwara State Chapter dropped this hint in an exclusive interview with Dailysource in Ilorin.
He explained that the paucity of personnel in the primary healthcare facilities is hindering the required 24 hours services to the patients as more professional Community Health Officers, Community Extension Workers and Junior Community Extension Workers are required for effective service delivery.
Ibrahim pointed out that Community Health Workers are not more than 300 in the state Ministry of Health while some local governments in the state have 40 Primary Healthcare Centres with as low as 30 Community Health Workers.
According to him, the shortage of the personnel in the Primary Healthcare facilities in the 16 LGAs of the state is at variance with the guidelines and policies of World Health Organization and National Primary Health Care Development Agency.
He observed that each local government requires at least 150 Community Health Workers to reduce the burden of over-labour on existing staff
The Community Health Expert tasked the state government to intervene in engaging additional Community Health Workers for primary healthcare centres in the local government areas of the state.
The Community Health Association Secretary also harped on the autonomy f local government areas to enable them access their funds directly from the Federation Accounts and in turn employ more health workers to cater for 80% of primary health care in the local government areas.
Ibrahim therefore appreciated the present administration under Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for recruiting 80 Community Health Workers majorly into state primary health care in 2022 and solicited state government support for increased manpower to boost local government healthcare to reduce over concentration on the tertiary health facilities.
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