ABUJA -The Federal Government has concluded plans to employ additional 2,000 midwives, 1,000 Community Health Officers and 6,000 Village Health Workers in furtherance of its Midwifery Service Scheme.
Dr Ado Mohammed, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
He said the initiative was geared towards reducing maternal mortality.
“For 2012, we intend to scale up the scheme because it is a successful programme, and we intend to take on additional 2,000 midwives, turnout 1,000 Community Health Officers, 1,000 Community Health Decision Workers and about 6,000 Village Health Workers.
“The reason being that we want to scale up the services in about 500 facilities nationwide, and then we also want to make sure that we do have an outreach services, so that the service that is being provided will not be only facility-based but will also be extending to the communities.”
According reports, the Federal government introduced the scheme in 2010 as a way of reducing high maternal mortality rate in the country.
The introduction of the scheme followed the poor international rating of the country as having a high rate of maternal mortality.
Mohammed said that at present, government had employed and deployed 4,000 midwives to 1,000 facilities in a cluster of four primary health care centres linked to a general hospital.
He said the scheme aimed at ensuring that skilled manpower was available to women during child birth and to also bridge the huge human resource gap in the health sector.
“We have operated this scheme for two years, and for these two years, we have seen an increase in terms of women attending ante-natal clinics; women delivered of their babies in the facilities and more children being immunised.
“This has translated to a reduction in maternal mortality and increase in child survival.’’
The executive director explained that the new initiative of engaging village health workers would enable each household to have access to trained health workers that would treat minor ailments and promote health generally.
Mohammed said the objective was to encourage behavioural change and promote healthy lifestyles.
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