Expert urges responsive health systems

The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP) Dr Bolanle Oyeledun, has called on government at all levels to set up health department and programmes that are responsive to the needs of the populace. Fielding questions from newsmen during a media roundtable organized by the organisation in Abuja, Oyeledu said one […]

The Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP) Dr Bolanle Oyeledun, has called on government at all levels to set up health department and programmes that are responsive to the needs of the populace.
Fielding questions from newsmen during a media roundtable organized by the organisation in Abuja, Oyeledu said one major area to do this was to renovate the dilapidated primary health care centres in the country.
She said it was important to make them functional to ensure that the average person who was five  kilometers away within that radius could go to a primary health care center that meets the minimum standard prescribed by the country.
According to her, there was need for ministries , department and agencies involved in health care delivery and development to be responsive, and  to ensure that hospitals and all levels of health care and institutions provide quality care.
She said government at all levels should ensure that health care providers were paid on time and should get remuneration that motivate them to do  their work adding that most importantly meeting the needs of the client or patient who is the end user person is  paramount in everything that was done.
While soliciting the support of the media in carrying out the group’s programmes and empowering the populace, she advised the media to enlighten the populace more on how to prevent malaria.
She said CIHP has carried out test for over 4.2 million pregnant women across the states that it supports, and also helped prevent mother to child transmission of HIV in 65,000 pregnant women.
She said CIHP evolved from Columbia University’s International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Program (CU-ICAP) in 2011 and has continued to implement the United States Government (USG) funded comprehensive, high-quality, HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment program and other health promoting programs in Nigeria.
“Our focus is health systems strengthening (HSS), institutional capacity building and reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases. Others focus areas are care and support for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and gender equity and empowerment,” she said.