Enugu Child Health Week: LGA Chairmen asked to change attitude towards health care

The lukewarm attitude of caretaker chairmen of local governments in Enugu state towards primary health care services may  bring down the high standard already set by the state government on the primary health sector.

The recent Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) exercise organised by the state ministry of health exposed that the caretaker chairmen, are yet to understand the importance and value of the interventions from both the state government and other partners like the UNICEF to children and pregnant women in their various local governments.

BusinessDay, one of the media organisations that monitored the exercise in some of the facilities at some local governments areas, noticed that despite the efforts of the government and its partners in providing the interventions, the officers in the field are still faced with a lot of challenges which  hider the smooth running of the exercise in the rural areas.

Some of these challenges include logistics and insufficient fund for media sensitization among others. In one of the local government areas the  immunisation officer  was asked by the authority to source money for the exercise. He was promised to be reimbursed latter.

The following services and interventions were available for pregnant women and children under five years during the one week programme; immunisation, health education, provision of food supplements, safe motherhood education and birth registration.

Health experts are of the opinion that it would be of benefit to the society if the local government caretaker chairmen are  well informed on the benefits of the program through workshops.