Cross River State in the Health sector, especially the Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency (CRSPHCDA), have been performing excellently well and has maintained their promises to ensure Cross River State have access to good and quality health services.
In achieving these goals in less than a year, Calabar Reporters conducted an interview with the Director General (DG), Dr. Beta Edu on how the Primary Health Care Agency has been able to poster its name across the nation.
Dr. Beta started by thanking God for his grace and opportunity given to her to serve the state through the health sector. She also praised His Excellency Prof. Ben Ayade who is a youth friendly governor for believing in young people as he’s picked up many young people to serve Cross Riverians. She said, she’s so glad to be among those young people selected to do the job. And for His Excellency, Prof. Ben Ayade on appointing them gives them the mandate to go out and deliver quality primary health care services to state and that’s what they’ve been doing.
On the upgrade of the sector, Dr. Edu said when they came in, it was just a department and now they’ve able to upgrade from a Department to an Agency, the process which took place from 2011 to 2016. Also the governor, His Excellency, Prof Ben Ayade through his dogged and resilient character was able to bring this to bear, because he knew the advantages the Agency stand to benefit from both the national and other international donor Agencies if it is created.
Dr. Beta said, so well so far, we have the Agency, and the Agency has been able to accomplish a lot under Governor Ayade. She said; “We (the Agency) have been able to have several Primary Health Cares (PHCs) across the state fully renovated, refurbished, some have been commissioned already. We’ve had about four (4) commissioned already, two (2) are in the Pipeline ready for commissioning, i.e. the one at Negeche and the other one at Biase as I speak. So, it’s just about timing and space to do the commissioning.
“We have been able to reach out to several communities; communities where before now had little or no government attention, like the people in Wanihem at Ukele, Yala LGA. We’ve reached out to the internally displaced persons, IDPs at Bakassi Camp; we’ve created health post for them there which will be giving them health services and attending to their health needs.
“We’ve equally taken out reaches to very remote areas, like Okorochi, Wanikande, Ikang, Ikot Edem Edo, and several other communities in the interior parts of Cross River State. This is to ensure that we are not only giving quality health care to people in urban areas but we’re reaching out to people in the remote rural areas of the state.” She said.
According to Dr. Beta Edu, Cross River Sate has been able to improve on immunization services. She said, “Before now we use to have low immunization coverage; by that I mean, how many children were able to receive that dose of vaccine. But now, we’re ranked top most in the last two exercises and Cross River State has continued to stand out in immunization because the governor has supported us to take immunization to the most remote areas in the state.
“We cross the Water ways. Most times even at Bakassi and go into the creeks to immunize children there, like in Akamkpa, Odukpani, even in Calabar South, we cross waters to the other side and immunize our Children. So, we try to take it down that far just to ensure that at least, we have more than 95% of every child living in Cross River State being immunized against vaccine preventable diseases.
“For we don’t want our children to come down with these diseases, we don’t want to have an outbreak of those diseases in Cross River State which will make it so difficult for us to manage. So, the government has been given a plus for that.” She said.
Elaborating on the above statement, Dr. Edu said the Agency is working towards the Polio-Free Certification from Nigeria by World Health Organization (WHO) in Nigeria and in Cross River State.
To be able to protect Nigeria as a nation and Cross River as a state, Dr. Beta said the Agency have improved border surveillance in the border communities. “We’ve created border health post; the health post is to improve surveillance. We have equally had discussions, meetings with the force including the Police, Customs, Navy, and Army that stayed at the border because we want everybody to have their eyes on the road.
“For instance, if you see a child coming with Flaccid Paralysis, you should watch out, for it might be Flaccid Polio. Immediately, report to the health workers, who will report to the Agency, so we can go to investigate, quarantine the person to get to the case.
“Further, if you see someone with yellow eyes, it might be Yellow Fever, and so, you should hold the person down for us to try to work on it.
“Finally, we’re doing our best to ensure that we don’t have diseases come from neighbouring countries or state into Cross River State that’ll affect our children and our people.” She added.
