TheCable

The federal government says measures are being put in place to make primary health care centres (PHC) in rural areas attractive to health workers.

Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, spoke on Thursday in Abuja at a briefing commemorating World Health Day and World Health Workers Week.

Ehanire said health workers prefer to practice in cities, thereby depleting manpower in healthcare facilities in rural areas.

He added that the government is “trying to make rural PHCs more attractive, as plans have been put in place to build staff quarters to address accommodation problems”.

“The lack of staff quarters has been a problem because health workers don’t have a place to stay when sent to rural areas,” he said.

“We will ensure provision of water, electricity or solar energy to have light in the centres for better performance to encourage health worker to stay in the rural areas.

“We are also making provision for ambulances that will make transportation easy for patients and health workers.”

Ehanire said the federal government had appealed to state and local governments to establish schools of health technology where rural health workers would be trained.

He said the workers could be trained in local languages to enable them to easily communicate with the rural residents.

The minister added that the government plans to make use of digital technology to make communication easier for medical personnel and patients.

“We hope that all our measures will encourage the state and local governments to prioritise employment and payment of rural health workers, especially the PHC workers,” he said.

“This is because PHCs are under the payroll of state and local governments.”