Gombe: Recruitment of 640 Health Workers Will Boost Child Health – UNICEF

From Paul Orude Bauchi

A Health Officer with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office, Dr. Oluseyi Olusunde, has commended Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State for recruiting 640 health workers.

Olusunde who disclosed this at a one-day media dialogue held in, Jos, on Thursday, said the development will address child mortality in the state.

The Media Dialogue was organised to raise awareness on child mortality in Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba States.

Presenting trend on child mortality, the UNICEF Health Officer emphasized that data from the 2023 National Democratic Health Survey indicated Nigeria accounts for 10 percent of the global child deaths every year

Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba states showed rising rates of neo-natal, infant and child deaths of 38, 45, and 37 children per 1,000 lives birth respectively.

He said all hands must be on deck to stop child deaths in the affected states.

Olusunde, who stressed that child deaths are preventable, expressed optimism that the recruitment of additional health workers by Governor Yahaya Inuwa would improve child health in Gombe.

“There are two things we need to pay more attention to: human resources and commodity,” he stated.

“Gombe for instance, 440 workers have been engaged.

“We want to appreciate the governor for approving their direct absorption into the mainstream.

“We are told that he (the governor) has approved engagement of 200 addition health workers

“If you distribute 640 to the 114 wards in the state, that’s about six in addition to what we have before and we will not be talking about child mortality because we have the health workers there”

He hoped the media dialogue would be a positive step in tackling child mortality in the three states and the country.

“The NDHS report we shared today (Thursday)  came out about a month and the first step we are talking about it is engaging with media, sharing the data and looking at what has happened in the last five years, what has been the situation in the last 10 years,” he said.

One of the calls to action was that media practitioners should be part of coordination for Primary Health Care task force in three various states in order to be abreast of issues that have to do with governance, leadership, resource mobilization, resource allocation, accountability tat impact on child health.

“Participation of journalists will give them understanding of the direction of government,” the UNICEF health officer.

“Media should be part of the monitoring and accountability structure for PHC.

“Our health workers, the investment of government, if journalists go around the health workers will go to work

“Attitude of health workers, if they know that people are coming around supporting our community people to go around to support the health workers I think we will get better results”

“PHC is healthcare to the people wherever they live.

“If there are adequate health workers and enough supply then we are good to go.

“If I go to the community and the people don’t have a PHC, the chief’s house, primary schools can be used to provide services”

“We believe that the media practitioners are like the gate keepers, they are like the window to the people.

“We believe if all we have decided here is put into action, there will be results because they will be going back to engage will get people on their toes and media are good at doing that

“We look forward for results”