From CHARLES ONYEKWERE, ABAKILIKI
Enugu State government said it will employ no fewer than 400 clinical and non-clinical staff in Primary Healthcare Centres, PHCs, to strengthen its manpower needs.
Executive Secretary of Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency, ENS-PHCDA, Dr Ifeyinwa Ani-Osheku disclosed this in Enugu yesterday.
Ani-Osheku noted that this followed the existing manpower gap identified in PHCs in each of the 17 council areas.
She said the agency and the health ministry had already collated data on the PHC centre equipment and manpower gap.
According to her, from the onset, accurate manpower, equipment needs and gaps were identified and duly recorded; and now the state government has concluded plans to fill the manpower gap in each PHC.
She said the recruitment would involve clinical staff like nurses, midwives and laboratory scientists, as well as other non-clinical staff such as ward attendants, cleaners among others.
The executive secretary noted that in order to check truancy, those to be recruited would come from communities or council areas where the PHC they would work is domiciled.
Ani-Osheku said Type-2 PHC facilities, being built and well-furnished, would come with accommodation for staff on duty so that issue of truancy or abandonment of facility would never surface again.
She added that with all set, PHC centres would deliver quality services at the doorsteps of the people and ensure that the healthcare burden of communities are addressed timely.
“We are going to have a digital clocking system which will also be viewed in my office, to enable us know when and how many staff report to work on-the-spot each day.
“This will be done with a digital firm that had entered into partnership with the state government.
“We are also synergising with community dwellers to get feedback from them on service delivery and the attitude of staff posted to their PHC centres.
