Group decries shortage of qualified staff, water supply, in Gombe Health Facilities
By Chima Azubuike
A coalition of civil society organisations has decried the shortage of qualified staff, limited collaboration between the facilities and community members as well as shortage of water in some health facilities in Gombe State.
The Coalition include; Network of People Living with HIV/ AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN) and Civil Society for the Eradication of Tuberculosis in Nigeria.
Speaking during a media round table on Global Fund, National Agency for Control of AIDS, Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health, The Covid-19 Response Mechanism grant, the Programme Officer of NEPWHAN Mohammed Kabir Ibrahim, lamented the challenges faced in the state.
According to Ibrahim, the findings are based on its interventions in 72 facilities in five Local Government Areas, out of eleven.
He said the Resilient System Strengthening for Health (RSSH), is a community intervention that supports the development and reinforcement of informed, capable, coordinated and sustainable structures, and mechanisms.
He said, “Processes and actors through which community members, organisations and groups interact, coordinate and deliver their responses to the challenges and needs affecting their communities.
“The main activity is basically to mobilise communities in responses to ATM diseases, address barriers to accessing health and other social services and social determinants of health. Gombe as part of the implementing state coordinated by NEPWHAN at National and state level working in hand with TB and Malaria bodies implementing this aspects of community system strengthening in five Local Government Areas namely:- (Balanga, Dukku, Kaltungo, Kwami and Yamaltu Deba), in each of the implementing LGAs three CBOs of ATM affiliated organisations are working to support communities to take ownership of their health.
Presenting the achievement, success stories, challenges and recommendation of the project he noted that “Inadequate qualified staff delayed in client consultations. Limited to weak collaboration between community leaders and facility staff. Shortage of portable drinking water in some of the facilities,” Ibrahim said.
He commended Government’s collaboration with Civil Society Organisations, adding that the recent employment although inadequate but was based on the efforts of CSOs.
Also speaking, Mohammed Sabo, NEPWHAN State Coordinator, urged government to show more commitment in tackling the raised challenges, he commended the collaborations existing between various organisations involved in system strengthening for health in the state.
Also, Haruna Bose, Focal Person, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission explained that the essence of the programme was to discover inherent challenges in communities, proffer required solutions.
Bose said, “the aim of this project is to help the communities change from point A to point B. After finding the problem, discuss it with them and find solutions to the problems.”
Yes the project is worth also to be supported by state government for sustainability after GF rounds up.
Advocacy should not be a program conducted but should carry effects as stake holders get committed with political will.