The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has advised traditional rulers to redouble efforts on primary health care (PHC) services and penetration of COVID-19 vaccination in South-East.
He the advice while inaugurating the South-East Traditional Leaders Committee (SETLC) on Primary Health Care (Services) Delivery in Enugu at the weekend.
The inauguration, part of a two-day programme for traditional rulers in the region, was organised by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency (ENS-PHCDA).
He said in order to push PHC services and COVID-19 vaccination forward, there was a need to mobilise traditional rulers, who are very influential in each community, to achieve the desired objective.
The minister said they were going to rely on their powers of advocacy and the respect they command among the people to push PHC services which include COVID-19 vaccination, to the next and desirable level.
He said: “With the inauguration today we are making them more relevant to issues of PHC services and they should also have royal input and oversight to ensure that PHC centres under them in communities function optimally.
“We are targeting a huge change, growth and patronage to PHC services and COVID-19 vaccination; and we must achieve all these by active and effective collaboration with our respected and influential traditional rulers.”
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi said as gatekeepers of the communities, it was necessary to get the monarchs more involved in advocacy and ensuring that PHC services were timely delivered to the people.
