The Federal Government has commended Cross River State for its proactive approach in tackling Primary Health Care intervention programmes which has earned the State the best in the South-South geopolitical zone.
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Mohammed Ali Pate, made the commendation during a courtesy call on Governor Liyel Imoke at the end of the Stakeholders meeting on Prevention of Mothers to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS scale up in the State.
Pate observed that 35,000 lives have been saved through the states effort while the Federal government has been able to save one million lives across the nation which calls for a strong collaboration and partnership between the Federal and State Governments.
The Minister noted that prevention is a key factor in the nation's health programmes which demands a strong support from stakeholders to ensure its success and remarked that Cross River has recorded tremendous success through its approach towards ensuring lives of infants and their mothers are saved.
He disclosed that the implementation of the primary health care is intended to flush out children killer diseases from the country and from its assessment of the states, Cross River has set a mark in south-South despite its peculiar challenges.
Pate maintained that Nigeria is committed to the eradication of polio following the inauguration of the Presidential Task Force which is expected to work with the states and appreciated Cross River in its effort to kick polio out off the nation.
Executive Director/CEO PMTCT, Dr Mohammed commended Cross River for making available N5 million monthly support and 20 vehicles to the programme which places it among the three best performing states in the country.
Mohammed said his office has noted some of the challenges faced by the different states and is working on modalities to evolve the way forward.
Responding, Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State acknowledged the health reform programmes put in place by President Goodluck Jonathan which calls for partnership between the Federal and State Governments for the programmes to succeed.
Imoke disclosed that Cross River has applied various approaches with the belief of improving Primary Health care delivery and eliminate preventable diseases with the policy of establishing one health care centre to attend to 300 people across the state.
Imoke said it is important that the quality in service delivery improves through training and retraining of personnel while there is access for the citizenry to health care delivery services under an hygienic environment, stressing that a partnership between the federal and state Governments will strengthen the programmes at grassroot level.
The Governor lauded Federal Ministry of Health for organizing several workshops to address Primary health issues in the country, disclosing that the state places great emphasis on it by making an annual budgetary allocation while the Social Welfare Department liaises with Department of Public Health to deliver free medical services to indigent families.