Taraba government, NSHIP agree to improved primary healthcare delivery

The Taraba State Government and the Nigeria State Health Investment Project (NSHIP) at the weekend signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for improved primary Health Care delivery at the grassroots level.

At the signing ceremony in Jalingo, State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Innocent Vakkai said the signing of the memorandum of understanding to scale up more hospitals in the NSHIP programme in the state would turn around primary health care delivery services in the state.

“In the time past, primary health facilities in the state use to be in bad shape and could hardly offer services, but with the coming of NSHIP, the programme has improved both health care delivery and infrastructural development of our primary health care facilities in the benefiting local government areas.

“The programme is aimed at strengthening health care development at the local level and I want to call on the beneficiaries to take the programme seriously.

“Taraba is now 13 out of the 36 states in terms of improved primary health care delivery going by the recent assessment and I want to thank Governor Darius Ishaku for his prompt payment of counterpart funds for the take off of the project in the state.”

Vakkai noted that the signing of the MoU would further strengthen and revitalize the primary health care delivery services in the state.

Earlier, the Programme Coordinator, Ubanus Ezekiel said the programme started with a pilot scheme at Ardo Kola and later scaled up to Takum and Jalingo local government, adding that with additional local government added to the programme, more people in the rural areas would have access to health care service.

He enjoined participants to make maximum use of the knowledge gained during the training and ensure accountability for the fund assigned to their facilities.

On his part, National Focal Person of Primary Health Care Development Agency, Yohana Markus pledged the support of the agency to the success of the programme.