The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Primary Health Care Development Board says nothing less than 4,000 additional health workers are needed to deliver effective and efficient health services across the territory.
The Acting Executive Secretary of the Board, Dr Mathew Ashikeni told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday, April 7, 2018.
Commemorating the 2018 World Health Day, Ashikeni explained that the health workers included medical doctors, midwives, laboratory technicians, medical record officers and pharmacist technicians were needed.
The theme of this year’s World Health Day is “Universal health coverage: everyone , everywhere”.
He said that health workers that rendered services to millions of residents in the territory were inadequate compared to the rapid growing population of FCT.
According to him, the last assessment showed that FCT needs more than 60 per cent of what it currently has in terms of health workforce to fill in the gap.
The secretary disclosed that in 2017 no fewer than 50 midwives were engaged and posted to serve the people in the rural areas.
Ashikeni said that FCT administration was planning to recruit additional 200 midwives this year adding that the plan of engagement of more midwives had been captured in 2018 budget.
He noted that in spite of the insufficient personnel, his board had embarked on different programmes to provide health care services to the rural dwellers.
He stated that part of the projects was the outreach programme for people in the hinterlands and head camps where teams of health workers were sent to rural areas to treat common diseases.
The executive secretary said that the present FCT Minister was committed to provide health care services to all residents of the territory wherever they might be located.
By Mustapha Sumaila
