Rivers
RIVCHPP: RSG Allays Fears Over Non-Regular Counterpart Funds Release
The Rivers Government has allayed the fears of civil servants that its counterpart funds for the implementation of the Rivers State Contributory Health Protection programme (RIVCHPP) will not be regularly released .
Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to Rivers State Sole Administrator, Professor Chituru Orluwene, who said this in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, also denied that government will not sustain the payment of its counterpart funds for the implementation of the RIVCHPP programme.
He also commended the Sole Administrator of the state rtd. Admiral Ibok Ete Ibas, for approving the inclusion of the formal sector in the RIVCHPP.
Orluwene also urged citizens and other residents of the state to embrace the programme to enable them have easy access to quality health care services.
He said this during the commissioning of the equipped/furnish dental and physiotherapy units and the solarization inverter backed up system at the Professor Kelsey Harrison Hospital, Port Harcourt.
The SSA said with the inclusion of the formal sector and inauguration of a board, civil servants have now been included in the programme, stressing that government is ready to meet up its own obligations through the regular payment of its counterpart funds.
Orluwene said government is also leaving no stone unturned to ensure that all health institutions owned by the State are properly equipped to meet up the challenges of providing affordable health care to the people.
According to him, government is prepared to provide the necessary equipment for the smooth functioning of all health institutions in the state.
He also said the referral system is also being strengthened to ensure effective performances of all categories of all institutions in the health sector.
He said the ongoing reforms in the health sector was part of the promise by the Sole Administrator of the State to reinvigorate the health sector for greater productivity.
“The state Administrator didn’t mince word in marshalling the critical areas he will want to address in the state within the very short period he will be here.
“He sets the ball rolling and one of those critical areas is the area of revitalizing and invigorating the reform system in the health sector”, he stated.
Orluwene said the situation where tertiary health institutions, such as the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital and University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital now perform the functions of primary and secondary health services is unacceptable.
“You have a situation where the tertiary institution or the tertiary institutions we have in Rivers State, The Rivers University Teaching Hospital and the university of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital are serving as primary and secondary and tertiary centres.
“This kind of arrangement cannot guarantee the health of the citizens”, he said.
Professor Orluwene further decried the non-functioning of all the health centres and General Hospitals across the state.
“So, the only hospital working, where you can go and find doctors are the tertiary institutions.
“That does not make for a proper referral system and that also cannot guarantee the health of our state”, he said.
He described the ceremony as a show of capacity by the management of the health institution and urged others to emulate it.
Also speaking, the Chief Medical Director of The Rivers State Hospital Management Board, Dr. Bright Ogbonda, said the board is concerned about quality of services to the people.
“What we will try to do in the Hospital Management Board is to make sure that we give effective quality care to our patients, especially those residing in peripheral hospitals”, he assured.
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