By Edu Abade
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminialayi Fubara, has been described as someone who is not only prepared to provide good governance to the people but also a governor who has keen interest in having a healthy workforce in the state.
Acting Executive Secretary of Rivers State Contributory Health Protection Programme (RIVCHPP), Dr. Vetty Agala, made the declaration in Port Harcourt, while addressing chairmen and members of caretaker committees and principal officers of the 23 councils of the state during a training programme organized by the state Ministry of Local Government Affairs.
She said the Governor initiated the programme to enable everyone living and doing business in the state to be able to access quality health care services when they need it.
She also asserted that the Governor wants the health indices of the State to improve and that the programme is part of the Health agenda programme of the present day Government in the State which is being driven by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Adaeze Chidinma Oreh.
Agala announced that the major challenge that the programme is facing is apathy on the part of the people of the State who she said are yet to avail themselves of this laudable opportunity to save them costs even as they access health care services at the designated health facilities littered all over the State.
The RIVCHPP Executive Secretary reiterated that the health insurance scheme is available for everyone residing in the State, indigenes and non-indigenes alike, whether civil servants or self-employed, emphasizing that the first plan of the programme, which is the Basic Health Care Providers Fund (BHCPF), is basically for the people at the rural areas and the vulnerable in the state.
She pointed out that even those outside the identified vulnerability can be part of the scheme by enrolling into the programme through the payment of a token that will empower them to access the same level of healthcare services.
Agala, therefore, urged the ward and Community Development Committees (CDCs) in the various wards and communities of the state to aggressively drive the process to ensure that those who are supposed to benefit from the programme make maximum use of the government’s magnanimity.
She stressed that they should also check and ensure that health workers in the various health facilities provide the needed health care services to those who enrolled for the programme free of charge, describing the ward and CDCs as the fulcrum of the programme, which is a social scheme that is government driven to ensure people get the benefit they need.
