PHCMB Tasks Doctors On Maternal Mortality

The Rivers State Primary
Health Care Management Board has urged doctors to be committed to reducing the maternal and child mortality index in the state.
The Executive Secretary of the Board, Dr Claribel Abam, who said this yesterday, during an orientation programme organised for newly recruited Medical Officers in Port Harcourt reiterated government’s resolve to make meaningful impact in the lives of Rivers people and as such, the responsibility lay on the doctors to work hard and ensure a reduction in the figures of maternal/child mortality.
She said the aim of organising the programme was to arm the doctors with necessary tools and relevant information on how best to achieve the Millennium Development Goals,4, 5 and 6.
According to her, “Primary Health Care is a policy of the Nigerian government and therefore primary health care is the inalienable rights of every citizen, it therefore means that you will go and look up the eight components of primary health care and know that those components are things that you must render as services to the people”.
As service providers ,Dr Abam said, “your service must be optimum, in other words as doctors, you are expected to sit down and consult with patients , you are expected to oversee the facilities placed under your charge, therefore you must work as doctors as well as administrators.”
She noted that as leaders, they have been placed in various health facilities in the state to drive the policies of government, one of which is; that primary health care must be available to residents of the state, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
“It is for this reason that government went ahead to build staff quarters in the health centres which means that the service providers must be physically present in those facilities at all times.”,she said.
She warned that disciplinary measures would be taken against any doctor who does not reside in the facility provided by government and also gave assurances that the Board would in the preceeding months organise training and retraining sessions in line with best practices to better equip them for the task ahead.