Stakeholders in HIV AIDS, Malaria, TB control laud Mutfwang for improved funding

Stakeholders in the treatment and eradication of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (ATM Network) in Plateau state have lauded Governor Caleb Muftwang for hearkening to their plea for increased funding and recruitment of staff in the health sector to improve service delivery especially in primary healthcare centres in the state.

Speaking at Global Fund Grant Cycle 7 COVID-19 Response Mechanism Project (GC7 C19RM) Media Round Table Meeting in Jos, Peter Ezekiel, the Plateau State Programme Officer of the Global Fund/NACA C19 Response Mechanism Project; Daniel Mancha Bature, Plateau TB Network Coordinator; Joy Inuwa Jamaika, Programme Officer of Plateau State AIDS Control Agency; Pharm. Meshak Dayol, Director, Product & Quality Assurance of Plateau State Drugs and Medical Commodity Management Agency (PS-DMCMA; Bot Yohanna Toma, State M&E Officer, Plateau State TB, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Programme (PSTBLCP), and Da Dung D. Jok, Traditional Ruler said that government intervention had greatly made it possible for complementarity in the work of the ATM and community based organisations (CBOs) in tackling the menace posed by the diseases.

Ezekiel said that the government has intervened in the shortage of staff by recruiting 1,700 personnel in the health sector. Of this number, he said that 250 staff were recruited to work in the general hospitals, while 1,450 were recruited to work in the primary healthcare facilities.

He said, “So far so good the project has achieved more and advocacy carried out has yielded enough results. Well, our most damping challenge before now is that there are inadequate health workers in most of the primary healthcare facilities. There has been a loud cry all this while, but thank God for the government of His Excellency, Barrister Caleb Mutfwang, who has approved the engagement of 1,700 workers for the state health facilities. And we believe this will at least reduce, even though there is still promise for more to be approved in the coming year, at least this is a start.
And we call this a remarkable achievement that is prompted by this project from our advocacies and advocacies of other partners working in the state. Now the government is prioritizing engagement of existing facility volunteers in the approved 1,700 staff.

“This, we believe, will improve the service delivery and make sure that the waiting time is reduced to its barest minimum. If this move of engaging volunteers who have been supporting facilities is achieved, facility volunteer initiative is going to be encouraged thereby closing all future HR gaps in health service delivery in the state. So, we thank the Global Fund, NACA and the ATM network for their continued support to have helped us to achieve these feet.

“Mancha, who is the TB Network, Plateau State, Project Team Lead, said that the programme has brought a lot of successes in regard to service uptake.
He said, “Like I said during the media roundtable, initially we have people diagnosed with TB that leaves Plateau state to the Bauchi just to access drugs because of what we suffered last year, but now as part of the successes we have achieved, the narratives have changed. Now we have sufficient drugs in all the Direct Observation and Treatment (DOT) centers under trained personnel DOT Officers.

Bot said a lot of successes have also been recorded in tuberculosis treatment and control, adding that the recent releases of counterpart funding by Governor Mutfwang had assisted the work of the TB control programme.

The Director of Production and Quality Assurance, Dayol, who represented the Director-General of the Plateau State Drugs and Medical Commodities Management Agency, said that the recent approval of N750 million by the governor and the release of N400 million has reinforced government confidence in the viability of the agency.

The traditional ruler, Da Dung D. Jok, who lauded the achievements of the ATM networks, said that it has made drugs available in clinics in the local areas. “This programme has been successful because in most of the clinics that we went through, they had shortages of manpower, but with this now, you know, we will be rest assured that the clinics will be up and doing. We will have more staff that will be working and we had volunteers being paid by the government.