Rivers
‘Lift Embargo On Health Workers’ Employment’
A forum of frontline healthcare workers has stressed the urgent need for federal and state governments to lift embargo on employment of health workers to beef up the services of the health sector across the country.
This has become necessary because of acute shortage of health personnel in government hospitals and health centres.
Speaking at the forum on “Policy Dialogue On Task Shifting and Task Sharing in Rivers State”, organized by a non-governmental organization (NGO), RAHI Medical Outreach in Port Harcourt, the Founder/CEO of the outreach, Dr. Chris Ekiyor disclosed that a survey carried out in Rivers State showed that one doctor attends to 4,000 patients in government health institutions.
According to Ekiyor, a dentist, because of significant human resource shortages in many of the country’s primary healthcare centres, unqualified medical personnel were now engaged in services they were not trained for resulting in frequent adverse consequences for patients.
He said that an approved policy on task shifting and task sharing for maternal and new-born healthcare in Nigeria would provide the legal framework for the review of the pre-services and in-service training curricula and adaptation of appropriate training materials and methods for all medical officers, adding that such policy would provide clear guidelines on the specific tasks that could be performed by different categories of healthcare workers.
The forum resolved that it was important to come up with a policy trust on task shifting and task sharing to increase access to health care services as well as allow for rational redistribution of tasks among health workers and increase human capacity building, pointing out that lack of adequate funding was a serious constraint to healthcare delivery in the country.
It advocated the adoption and implementation of TSTS in Rivers State while urging the government to allow for its domestification in all hospitals and health centres in the state with the support of politicians and other government agencies and stakeholders in the health sector.
The Project Consultant of RAHI Medical Outreach, Mrs. Helen Odega, in her remark, charged participants to join hands with the organization in the advocacy for the adoption and implementation of the TSTS policy to meet the targets and bridge the gaps created in the health sector, and enjoined them to sensitize medical workers on the importance of the policy at the state and local government levels.
The Rivers State Judiciary has denied a media report claiming that Justice Frank Onyiri of the State High Court issued an injunction order restraining the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), from inaugurating the newly appointed members of the Rivers State Civil Service Commission (RSCSC).
In a statement issued by the Deputy Chief Registrar in charge of litigation at the High Court, Menenen Poromon (Esq), the state Judiciary disassociated itself from the report, describing it as malicious and fabricated.
The statement emphasized that the report was a falsehood and a misrepresentation of what transpeared in the court.
Poromon clarified that no such order was issued by Justice Onyiri or any other judge of the High Court of the state and urged the public to disregard the information, as it lacked any iota of truth.
The statement however advised the public to verify any information concerning the state Judiciary directly from the office of the Chief Registrar, High Court of the State, to avoid spreading of misinformation.