Staff shortage: Ogun adopts task sharing policy

The Ogun Primary Health Care Development Board has adopted the Task Shifting and Task Sharing Policy to address the shortage of skilled health providers across its Primary Health Care Centres.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, made this known in Abeokuta at the unveiling of a document on task shifting and sharing policy for essential healthcare services in the state.
Ipaye said that government had taken the step in collaboration with Pathfinder International toward improving the health indicators to meet national and global expectations on Universal Health Coverage in the state.
He said: “It is important and necessary for us to spell out the specific tasks and responsibilities to be shifted from highly-qualified medical personnel to the lower ones.
“This will offer opportunities to train the less-qualified health workers in order to acquire competence on the task to be shifted.’’
In his address, the Acting Executive Secretary of the Board, Dr Elijah Ogunsola, said that the decision was in line with the approval and recommendations of the 57th National Council on Health.
Ogunsola said the decision was aimed at reducing mortality and morbidity rates across health centres in the state.
Dr Farouk Jega, the Country Representative of Pathfinder International, said that the arrangement would bridge the gap created by uneven distribution of health workers, migration effects and low productivity in the health sector.