Ministry of Health,WHO collaborate to strengthen FCTA’s response to health emergencies
Story from Christine TOBECHUKWU
The Federal Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have commenced strategic moves to strengthen the capacity of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) with regards to timely and effective response to health emergencies within the FCT.
FCTA acting Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS) Mr Malan Haruna revealed this agenda at the meeting organised by the secretariat in collaboration with the World Health Organisation(WHO) on Monday, 17th July 2023 in Abuja.
The meeting was tagged, ‘Scooping Mission on Strengthening and Utilising Response Groups for Emergencies (SURGE) in the Federal Capital Territory’.
Mr Malan Haruna declared during the meeting that the ultimate goal of the scooping mission was to stamp out lassitude when responding to challenging health hazards.
He also said that promoting and strengthening the ability of the FCTA to respond effectively to public health emergencies using a much more orderly and coordinated approach is another one of its goals.
“We have seen our inadequacies over the years, especially during the recent COVID-19 pandemic in terms of our ability to respond to the pandemic.
“We have learned from that experience, and we are trying to build from it so that we will be able to respond to health emergencies in a more coordinated manner.
“The essence of the scoping mission is to look at where we have failed so we can identify the challenges and find ways to address them for better responses in the future,” Mr Malan said.
He disclosed that there were 1,249 accredited health facilities made up of 814 primary health facilities and 432 secondary health facilities and three tertiary health facilities in the FCT.
He also said there are 814 primary health facilities within the FCT, 580 were private facilities, while 234 are public.
Mr Haruna also revealed that out of the 432 secondary health facilities registered in the FCT, 409 were private while 23 were public facilities.
The acting secretary further said that the quality and quantity of healthcare practitioners is commensurately poor and inadequate and the skewed distribution of health facilities in urban areas as against facilities in peripheral areas makes the margin pronounced.
Mr Malan Haruna stated emphatically that the FCTA is committed to making conscious efforts to bridge the gap in human resource for health through the recruitment of medical practioners and health care officers.
“The HHSS is also collaborating with Health Workforce Management to strengthen the capacity of health workers for better service delivery in the FCT.”
The Director Public Health, HHSS, Dr Abdulrahman Sadiq, during the meeting stated that the world has recorded numerous outbreak of diseases. And that this diseases became pandemics or epidemics periodically.
Mr Sadiq stressed that it is important to get ahead of time with adequate preparation that will aid a much more efficient, effective and seamless way to promptly respond to public health emergencies.
The coordinator of African Volunteer Corps for SURGE in Nigeria, WHO Country Office, Dr Kumshida Balami, also stated that the scoping mission was designed to assess the status of FCT’s capacity in response to health emergencies.
Balami stated that the exercise which would last up to July 22, 2023 would engage stakeholders in the health sector and assess their various capacities to respond timely to health emergencies.