Date: 2021-08-28

Protocols:

I welcome everyone to this important event, which is designed to chart a way forward for our Primary Health Care system.

At the World Health Organisation conference in Alma-Ata in 1978, the concept of Primary Health Care (PHC) was agreed upon as the bedrock for healthcare service delivery across the world. The main goal of PHC is to provide affordable and accessible healthcare for all by the year 2020 and beyond.

At the moment, however, primary healthcare caters for less than 20% of potential patients in Nigeria. This explains why enough resources and multi-stakeholders' collaboration must go into this key area to change the narrative.

In Kwara, our administration inherited a primary healthcare that was on the brink of collapse. For the first time since the establishment of primary healthcare agency in the state, we have recruited and deployed 42 new health workers. A process to recruit additional 155 is underway. We have renovated and equipped 27 PHCs across the state. We have conducted refresher trainings for hundreds of healthcare workers this year alone on life saving skills, patient care management, basic emergency obstetric care etc. I have also approved the engagement of 200 Community Health Influencers Promoters Scheme (CHIPS) agents to strengthen basic healthcare delivery at the grassroots.

We have promptly paid and will continue to pay counterpart funds to ensure that necessary health care interventions are available to our people. The implementation of Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) has taken off in the state, with 158 facilities so far cleared and equipped to enroll in the scheme. We have set up and adequately funded the State Emergency Routine Immunisation Coordination Centre. And just recently, the State Emergency Maternal and Child Health Intervention Centre was activated to revamp maternal and Child Health intervention services across our PHCs.

I acknowledge and commend the policy of primary healthcare under one roof. But the success of this policy depends on how much political will and resources we are ready to muster. We will also need to clear some constitutional impediments standing on its way. I expect that experts and sector players at this event will give a breakdown of these challenges and offer sustainable solutions.

I welcome you all once again, and look forward to a very engaging meeting that will spur a new commitment to primary healthcare across the country.

Thank you and God bless you all!