PLATEAU PROPOSES NEW PRIMARY HEALTH CARE MODEL

The Plateau State government has proposed a new primary healthcare model to the Governor's Forum, which would allow the state government to be in charge of the system for effective delivery,  the state's Commissioner for Health, Professor Barnabas Mandong has said.

Mandong, who spoke at the 13th annual national scientific conference at the weekend in Jos, said the local government would not be able to sustain the system.

The commissioner said the proposed policy if approved, would be funded directly from the federation allocation.

'The state government will contribute 80 per cent while the local government will contribute 20 per cent. The project will be established in each of the three senatorial districts and in each of the zones, we will have a primary health care manager to manage it,' he said.

Mandong, who lamented that the community health workers, manning primary health care facilities at the local level were not properly trained, said if removed from the control of the local government and turned into a parastatal, primary health care would be boosted.

The commissioner, who also decried the level of infrastructural decay in public hospitals in the country, also challenged doctors to instead of embarking on strike for salary increase, go on strike for infrastructural development.