ACOMIN PAYS ADVOCACY VISITS TO DELTA PRIMARY HEALTHCARE AGENCY, MINISTRY OF HEALTH

ACOMIN PAYS ADVOCACY VISITS TO DELTA PRIMARY HEALTHCARE AGENCY, MINISTRY OF HEALTH

By MAGNUS EMUJI 

A group known as the Civil Society Organization on Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN) has paid advocacy visits to the Delta State Primary Health Care Development Agency and the State Ministry of Health to strengthen collaboration towards improving the health system.

The separate visits were led by the State Coordinator of ACOMIN, Pastor Gregory Sifo, and the State Programme Officer (SPO), Sir Austin Uwede.

Speaking during the visit to the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics in the Agency, Dr. Charles Eboka, the ACOMIN State Programme Officer said the purpose of the visit was to ascertain whether the Agency had addressed lapses observed in some Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), raised during previous meetings.

According to Uwede, the issues confronting the facilities included unavailability of fridges to store vaccines and other drugs, non-functional solar systems, faulty solar panels, as well as collapsed soakaways.

Uwede stated that Okpanam Health Centre does not have a regrigerator for vaccine storage, stressing that some PHCs are usually flooded, especially now that we are at the peak of the rainy season.

He also said the roofs of some facilities leak whenever it rains, and that some PHCs are submerged by flood, and urged the Agency to find a lasting solution to the issues of solar power and fridges.

In his remarks, Dr. Eboka said the Agency would contact officers in charge of the healthcare facilities to get the list of centres with solar or solar panel issues and non-availability of fridges.

Eboka affirmed that if the affected facilities are among those under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), the Agency would address the issues directly, emphasizing that some of the affected PHCs might fall under those already approved for renovation.

He said that state government has approved the renovation of additional 41 PHCs in the State 

Meanwhile, the ACOMIN team also paid an advocacy visit to the SWAp Desk Officer in the State Ministry of Health, Dr. Aghogho Oyawiri, to introduce ACOMIN to his office and to find out why the organization was not invited for the 2027 Annual Operational Plan (AOP).

Uwede told the SWAp Desk Officer that ACOMIN was established to implement free malari 😂a, tuberculosis and HIV interventions in 13 states across Nigeria, including Delta State.

Responding, Dr. Oyawiri said that ACOMIN’s non-invitation to the programme was not deliberate but an oversight, adding that the Annual Operational P7e lan wasyg domiciled in the office of the Director, Health Planning, Research and Statistics (DHPRS) in the Ministry.

He assured the team of better collaboration going forward.