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MOST of the Primary Healthcare Centers in Osun State are facing the challenges of shortage of staff, OSUN DEFENDER gathered.
The situation, the medium learnt has led to work overload for the few health workers in the PHC, a development, one of the health workers described as unhealthy.
It would be recalled that the last administration under former governor Gboyega Oyetola recruited some health workers at the twilight of his time as governor of the state.
Oyetola recruited the staff after losing his re-election to the incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, with many people, especially members of the Peoples Democratic Party, seeing it as a way of sabotaging the present administration.
They queried why the former governor left it so late until he lost his re-election before recruiting staff, wondering if he would have made the appointment if he won that election.
Meanwhile, the health workers recruited by Oyetola were sacked by Governor Adeleke immediately he assumed office.
The governor in November 2022, through an Executive Order, terminated the appointment of the health workers, citing irregularities in the recruitment process.
But since their sacking, the present administration has not recruited new staff to join the already dwindling team.
OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the present administration only recruited few ad-hoc staff to help those on ground.
Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER, a Primary Healthcare staff in Egbedore who does not want her name in print because she was not authorised to speak, said the situation was becoming worrisome.
The Nurse said apart from the shortage of staff, the Primary Healthcare Centers were also facing the challenges of drug supplies.
“The truth is that we are silently suffering here. In this PHC, we have only four permanent staff with some trainees to attend to thousands of people. This is the only PHC in the town and we have about 16 communities under the town.
“It gets overwhelming sometimes that we have to do extra shifts. We’ve made several appeals to the concerned quarters but all we keep getting is that they will find a solution to it.
“Another issue we are battling with here is insufficient drug supplies. The facility was recently given a facelift, and unfortunately, we don’t have enough drugs and other amenities to work with here. I want to urge those in power to do something about it.”
A staff at a Primary Healthcare Center in Oriade Local Government while speaking with OSUN DEFENDER on phone also confirmed the situation.
The Nurse said there were only two staff at the health center, noting that the authorities ceased to post healthcare workers to the place a long time ago.
“We are two here and unfortunately, our bosses have refused to post health workers to this place. I’ve sent a lot of letters and visited them countless times but it is still the same.
“Even the ones they sent some months back found their way out because of the situation of things here. We are extremely short of staff and we are also lacking amenities”, the Nurse said.
A senior staff at the Primary Healthcare Board who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of intimidation confirmed the shortage of healthcare staff to OSUN DEFENDER.
The staff said they’ve been managing the situation with the ad-hoc staff recruited by the state government, adding that health workers are leaving the service every day without replacement.
“The truth of the matter is that we are seriously short of staff. The few ones available are overwhelmed with work. The board is trying to manage everything to have optimum service delivery but it is not easy.
“In a Primary heath centre where we supposed to have 10 staff and some ad-hoc, we only have four staff and these four people are the ones doing the work of 10 persons.
“Our PHC urgently needs staff, and I don’t know how best to put it to make the authorities see the need for more staff. Some of our staff have left because of the overload. It is killing and I’m urging the state government to do something about it.
“The health workers recruited under former governor Gboyega Oyetola were sacked by the present administration. I have no problem with that but I expected Adeleke to do the needful since he was the one who sacked those recruited. We have a lot of graduates outside there without jobs.”
When contacted, the state Commissioner for Health, Barr. Jola Akintola said the reason for the shortage of staff was because for 12 years, health workers were retiring without replacements.
The Commissioner noted that health professionals among the newly recruited ‘Imole Youth Corps’ have been deployed to PHCs in their respective local governments.
Barr. Akinola said the Ministry has gotten approval to recruit health workers to the PHCs, adding that the exercise will commence very soon.
He said, “We have about 814 PHCs in the state, at least, as at the last count. Out of these, we have 332 focal centers, one per ward. Relatively, no one can complain of shortage of Health workers in these focal PHCs.
“As regards the non-focal PHCs, well we have shortage of staff owing to the fact that for 12 years, workers were retiring and they were not replaced. That has also been addressed now, as nurses, CHEWS, JCHEWS and other health professionals/workers among the newly recruited/employed Imole Youths have been deployed to our PHCs in their respective local government areas.
“We have arranged to train them and to be retraining them from time to time.
Apart from this, I can assure you that we have gotten approval to recruit health workers to the PHCs. The exercise will commence very soon.”
Kazeem Badmus is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience. A professional in journalism and media writing, Kazeem prioritses accuracy and factual reportage of issues. He is also a dexterous finder of the truth with conscious delivery of unbiased and development oriented stories.
