Abia State Governor Alex Otti has said his administration would introduce special welfare package for health workers, to discourage them from seeking greener pasture.
He spoke while declaring open a programme by the Ministry of Health tagged: ‘First State Council on Health’, held at the International Conference Centre, Umuahia, with the theme: ‘Providing an Accessible, Affordable and Quality Health Care System for the New Abia.’
Dr. Otti said the Japa syndrome had taken its toll on the heath sector in the state, adding that his government was leaving no stone unturned to address the challenge.
“Government has resolved to motivate our health care workers through prompt payment of their salary and improvement of welfare packages that we will introduce from 2024,” he said.
He said improving the health care system was one of the cardinal objectives of his administration, recalling that he had promised to make people’s health a priority during the campaigns.
He said it gladdened his heart that the accreditation of Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), which was lost a couple of years ago, had been restored, with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria increasing its quota into the Abia State University College of Medicine and training of house officers.
The governor said his administration was about recruiting workers to strengthen the health sector. “We are in the process of recruiting new skilled birth attendants in order to improve health care service delivery in the state.
“Our ongoing digitalisation of Abia State civil service has uncovered some workers that have left their duty post for greener pasture, yet still receive remuneration from the government.”
Otti said the government had begun revamping and strengthening primary health care system and ensuring that there were health care workers to man such facilities across the state.
He added that the government had resuscitated health insurance scheme.
The governor said his administration had continued to retrofit and retool health care facilities in every part of the state, noting that the government had renovated and inaugurated general hospitals in Amachara, Umuahia, and Abia State Specialist and Diagnostic Centre, Aba Road, also in Umuahia, while work was ongoing in other 14 general hospitals across the state.
The Minister of Health, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Abia State Ministry of Health, Dr. Ifenyinwa Uma-Kalu, said the event was apt, arising from the experience of COVID-19, which exposed the inadequacies of health care and the need to improve on it.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ngozi Okoronkwo, described the event as a demonstration of the commitment of the Otti administration to prioritise developmental initiatives capable of unlocking the potential of Abia’s strategic human capital to fast-track the attainment of socio-economic development of the current administration.
