Otti Says Abia PHCs Equipped to Meet Healthcare Needs of Rural Populace

Abia State Governor, Alex Otti says the State will no longer witness maternal mortality as everything needed to cater for the healthcare needs of the people is provided in Primary Health Centres PHCs.

Otti stated this during the operationalisation of Urban 3 Primary Health Centre located at Ugwunchara, Ward 3 in  Umuahia North LGA.

Represented by the Commissioner for Health, Professor Enoch Uche, the governor noted that Primary Health Centres are the first point of call in the healthcare system and are capable of catering for over 80 percent of healthcare needs of the rural populace.

He noted that the PHC has world – class equipment which are rare in most general hospitals, including; point-of-care auto scans, malaria and typhoid diagnostic machines, multi-parameter monitors, and even an automated external defibrillator to revive cardiac arrest patients among others.

He added that the Urban 3 PHC just like other PHCs that have been functionalised, has modern maternity and delivery room, laboratory, pharmacy, consulting room among many others.

He said the facility equally has genuine drugs and discouraged them from patronising quacks and non licensed pharmacies.

The Governor, who urged the people to protect the facilities in the centre, stressed the need for them to encourage their children and relatives to patronise it.

Earlier, the Health Authority Secretary, Umuahia North LGA, Mrs Ngozi Eke described the facility as one of its kind in Umuahia urban, noting that there is no health facility around the area until now.

Mrs Eke commended Governor Alex Otti for his administration’s commitment to the healthcare needs of the people, and called on the people to access the place for their health challenges.

She used the opportunity to appeal to the State government to provide them with adequate security to guard against vandals who she said had started to perpetrate their evil acts in the facility.

Some residents of the area, including Chief Chinedum Shadrack and Mrs. Emilia Iroegbu lauded the Governor for initiating the renovation and equipping of the PHC, said that the PHC would be of great help to them.