FG to employ 10,000 midwives

No fewer than 10,000 midwives are to be employed by the Federal Government for rural health centres as part of the present administration’s efforts to promote primary health care in the country.

The Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin who announced this in a chat with newsmen in Lagos, said 2,000 of them had already been interviewed and would soon be deployed to their various duty posts nationwide.

Osotimehin also informed that the Federal Government, in collaboration with the 19 northern states, was planning a scheme through which many people would be trained as auxiliaries to assist the midwives in effective health care delivery services.

The auxiliaries, who he said must hold minimum of four credits including Biology at their O’ Level, would work in the rural parts of the north under the supervision of the midwives.

Similarly, Osotimehin disclosed that health professionals among the youth corps members would henceforth be made to serve in the rural areas where their services are needed most, saying he had discussed the plan with his counterpart in the Youth Development Ministry, Mr. Olasunkanmi Akinlabi.

According to the minister, these were part of the new health plan to bring primary health care to the doorsteps of rural dwellers so that they could benefit from the health programmes of the government.

“We are going to continue with routine immunization for children with malaria, chest infection and others. We are also making sure that women have access to antenatal clinics, facilities for their delivery, health education, good water supply, housing and all others that make primary health care services”, he assured.

Osotimehin added that government would soon make a policy on the ongoing community health insurance, which he described as the most important for health care services in children’s malaria and chest infection.

The minister further informed: “We are going to get 60 million treated beds nets distributed to Nigerians at two per household. If we do what we have to do, we can cut mortality rate to 50 per cent by the end of 2010 or early 2011”.

He also announced government’s decision to further upgrade the National Hospital, Abuja; University College Hospital, Ibadan; Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria and the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu to international standard and for the treatment of all cases commonly referred abroad.