7th July, 2015
Ondo State Government has advised the Federal Government to re-consider it’s stance on laying off the thousands of health workers engaged under the SURE-P Midwives Scheme noting that this would cause a setback for the gains recorded on maternal and child survival in the last few years.
The state health commissioner, Dr Dayo Adeyanju gave the advise at a meeting in Akure with the 400 health workers engaged under the programme in Ondo state.
Adeyanju said the Federal Government should rather block leakages in the system and possibly gradually exit from the programme instead of a sudden
withdrawal, based on the significant impact the programme has had at reducing maternal and child mortality in Nigeria.
“The Federal Government should not have pulled-out completely, even if they want to do so, it should be a gradual process, because if they are able to block the leakages in the system, especially with the newly introduced Performance Based Financing, it will help sustain the programme for more effective health service delivery, especially in the grassroots,” Adeyanju said.
He however revealed that Ondo State Government is working out plans to retain over 400 health workers employed under the SURE-P Programme of the Federal Government in the state.
He affirmed that the state government will be willing to keep them in the system, as they contribute immensely to the Abiye and Agbebiye initiatives of the present government in the state.
“You would recall that last week, the Federal Government decided to withdraw from the SURE-P Midwives Scheme, saying it cannot sustain it anymore.
“This would create a lot of human resources gap at the Primary Health Care level, which is the most critical level in the health system of any developing nation. Therefore, as a state government, we cannot allow this to happen.”
He said, if the state government must keep reducing maternal and child mortality and sustain the programme, which is to ensure that pregnancy is no longer a death sentence in the state, the workers are also needed in the sector.
Also, the Executive Secretary, Ondo State Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr. Olugbenga Osunmakinwa, said laying off the workers would create
shortage of human resources as the midwives extension workers provide a wide range of services in the area of maternal and child health care in all
facilities, including: family planning, immunization, ante-natal and post-natal services among others.
Speaking on behalf of the Health Workers, Mrs. Dunni Ajiboye commended the state government for its passion for quality health care delivery in the state and appealed to the Federal Government to have a rethink on its > recent action, saying this would go a long way to improve health care delivery in Nigeria.