The Cross River chapter
of National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners (NAGGMDP), has pledged solidarity to  Profs. Ben Ayade and  Ivara Esu as they assume duty as Governor and Deputy Governor to pilot the affairs of the state. The body promise to partner with the administration to enable it achieve its goals  of providing basic  and accessible health care services  for the people.
Chairman of  the Association, Dr. Ben Ajogbor, lamented the challenges affecting the delivery of health care services in the state vis a vis the policy imbalance in its health plan.
“There is a dearth of health professionals, with the medical doctors worse affected. Most of the hospital across the 18 local government areas have only one or two medical  doctors attending to 3.3 million people. These doctors run their duty schedules and are expected  to attend  to emergency cases, providing services for 24 hours without provisions for off duty, resulting in burning out,” Ajogbor lamented.
He also decried “poor remuneration, lack of manpower development policy, and mass exodus  of doctors from the state health team,” situations which he said, “puts whatever available  health care service programme the state sets to achieve at risk.”
According to Ajogbor, “the number of doctors in the state’s employment at present  is les than 60, with 80% of this  number at near retirement age,” indicating that this is not in the best interest of health care provision for the citizenry.
While appreciating the commitment of the past administration to the sector, he noted that as stakeholders, government should carry them  along in the formulation of health  policies inorder to make  them functional and effective.
He appealed to the Ayade-led government to improve on the sector by updating training  programmes with the aim  of building capacity; funding procedural researches through  clinical  teaching hospital for providing  services across the state.”This”, he said, “will enhance the quality of health care service delivery to cross Riverians.”

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar