A coalition of health professionals in Gombe, Maternal Newborn Child Health (MNCH), has called on the state government to pay Community Health Influencers and Promoters (CHIPs) their six months salaries.
Malan Alhassan Yahya, the Chairman of the coalition, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Gombe.
The NAN reports that MNCH coalition is a group of professionals from various backgrounds championing improvements in maternal and child healthcare.
According to him, the community health influencers, who are working in 57 wards in the state have not been paid for six months.
Yahya expressed the fear that the non-payment could affect the morale of the workers and this in turn could negatively affect the state’s health indices.
He said CHIPs had contributed in reducing the poor health indices. especially in the area of maternal and newborn.
He said CHIPs were the ones saddled with the responsibility of advising pregnant women in their various communities to go for early antenatal and postnatal care.
Yahya said the CHIPs also encouraged women to do exclusive breast feeding and ensure that they get their children immunised.
Dr Abduraham Shuaibu, the Executive Secretary, Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, said prior to the introduction of the CHIPs scheme in 2016 only 40 per cent of women and under-five children had access to healthcare.
He said with their engagement the number of women and under-five children who have access to healthcare have increased to 67 per cent.
He said although the scheme was introduced by the Society for Family Health (SFH), with funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the state government had taken the “full ownership’’ of the CHIPs scheme.
Shuaibu said at present there were 1,188 CHIPs working in 57 wards in the state, pointing out that there was a plan to extend their services to the remaining 57 wards.
He said N161 million has been approved by the government for the payment of the salaries.
He said the workers would be paid as soon as the money is released to his agency. (NAN)
