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| Dr. Inyang Asibong (Photo Left) and Governor Ben Ayade (Photo Right) |
By Inok Solomon
The Governor, Senator Ben Ayade with strong desire to see Cross Riverians healthy and strong is implementing programs that will make sure all gain access not only to health care but better and timely health care delivery.
With the Health Insurance Bill sign into Law and the AyadeCare program, there is a positive step in rebranding the state health care system.
But the fears of Cross Riverians are on Manpower, being that the Schools of Nursing in the state are closed down for some time now.
On that note, the Commissioner for Health Dr. Inyang Asibong said, “with the efforts of the Governor, the State Schools of Nursing had finally been accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria. She further stated that at present, Admission Forms are on sale for School of Nursing Itigidi, Calabar and School of Midwifery Ogoja.
On the issue of closing down School of Nursing Ogoja, the commissioner said, “let all concern be patient as the Governor is doing everything possible to reopen the schools given the growing population of the state, desire for professional schools and demand for more Nurses in our various Hospitals, most especially the planned Specialist Hospitals in the three Senatorial districts to enhance the Health Insurance Scheme. There is therefore, need to put a bill to decentralize Schools of nursing since a bill on centralization is already in place.”
It is therefore hopeful that in a very short time, the School of Nursing Ogoja and School of Nursing Obudu will be reopened as the Bill on Decentralization of Schools Nursing is on the way.
In another development, as part of the HRH project’s support to pre-service training institutions, the HRH project partners (World Health Organization [WHO] and Population Council) paid a courtesy call to the Commissioner for Health – Dr. (Mrs) Asibong.
During the visit, printed copies of the Curricula, Procedure Manuals and Student Handbooks for the School of Midwifery, Calabar and School of Nursing, Itigidi, (which the HRH project supported the schools to review and revise) were presented to the Commissioner. In addition, a sample of the Scattergram for the School of Midwifery, Monaiya-Ogoja were also presented to the Commissioner by the HRH Project Director for Population Council – Pharmacist Ekechi Okereke.
On her part, Dr. Inyang thanked the team and said the presentation of the documents is timely with the recent accreditation and ongoing admission of students.
