By Muhammad Amaan
The Sokoto State House of Assembly has pledged to improve budgetary allocation to the Routine Immunization in the state.
The assembly gave the assurance when the Zero Dose Learning Hub (ZDLH) Community of Practice (CoP) through the African Health Budget Network (AHBN) with African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, accompanied delegation of the Sokoto State House of Assembly Committee on health to visit Arkilla Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Wamakko LGA during their oversight function.
The committee led by its chairman, Hon. Kabiru Dauda and the House Committee Chairman on Budget and Finance, and others appealed to health workers in the state to always treat patients, especially nursing mothers with care, love, patience and respect, adding such will give them courage to bring forth their wards for immunization.
Speaking on challenges militating against immunization, the lawmaker emphasized that, all hands have to be on the deck to overcome the zero-dose situation.
“We are here as part of our responsibility in the oversight functions and to also see for ourselves the extend of immunization coverage, looking at the consistent issue of zero dose in the State.
“And to help compliment the efforts of development partners, we will push for enough bugdetary allocation for immunization purposes and ensure release of funds and supervision to achieve the desired objective of a polio free State”, Hon. Dauda assured.
He further explains that the oversight function is part of their mandate in order to ensure good service delivery to the community he thanks the service providers for their hard working as we witness the large turnout of mothers and care givers at the immunization unit.
On his part, the Sokoto State AHBN Focal Person, Umar Garba Khadi, said the lawmakers visit and the promise of improved budgetary allocation for immunization was a welcome development.
Khadi who listed some of the efforts AHBN and other partners have been doing to ensure that the State attain polio free status, further appealed for the support of all stakeholders.
“The State House of Assembly has shown serious commitment to the health of Sokoto people as demonstrated by their promise of budgetary provision. Let the people also come out en-mass to vaccinate their wards.”
He also informed the in-charge the aim of the oversight function is to assess the routine immunization unit of the health facility, to assess the general service delivery, structure and equipment and general utilization of resources of the facility.
In his remarks, Chairman on Appropriations, Hon. Abdullahi Alhaji Zakari, promised to ensure more fund are allocated to health in particular immunization so as to overcome the issue of zero dose children and settlement in the state. The two members promised to continue the oversight function periodically.
Addressing the delegations earlier, the Officer in Charge of Arikilla Primary Health Centre, Hajiya Aisha Yahaya Isah said the hospital is always busy attending to patience from morning to night, adding however that, their greatest challenges remained no single admission ward in the centre.
Continuing, Aisha who is a Community Health Worker (CHW) added that the Arkila PHC has 2 medical doctors, 6 midwives and over 30 volunteer health staff, submitted that they are doing their best in rendering services to patients.
Health Reporters Newspaper reports that partners in the team include the Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) Zero Dose, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and New Inceptive State Manager.
