Paucity of funds and office space cripple healthcare delivery in Taraba

The Executive Secretary of the Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency (TSPHCDA), Dr. Tukura Nuhu, has publicly identified inadequate counterpart funding, severe a lack of office accommodation, and poor budget releases as critical bottlenecks undermining effective healthcare delivery across the state. Dr. Nuhu made these disclosures during a comprehensive media briefing in Jalingo, where he detailed the operational hurdles confronting the agency despite the administration's stated commitments under Governor Agbu Kefas. According to reports from the state capital, the agency continues to battle suffocating overhead constraints that threaten the sustainability of grassroots health interventions.

Elaborating further on the staggering operational challenges, Dr. Nuhu listed accumulated electricity utility bills, critically inadequate monthly running imprests, and the exorbitant cost of fueling heavy-duty generators to maintain delicate cold-store facilities as daily nightmares for management. Unconfirmed accounts indicate that several zonal offices have struggled to keep their lights on, raising urgent questions regarding the actual disbursement patterns of approved statutory funds. These financial bottlenecks allegedly persist despite repeated appeals by agency stakeholders for immediate fiscal intervention from the state treasury.

Amidst these daunting financial constraints, the executive secretary noted that the agency had nonetheless recorded notable milestones in infrastructural and manpower development under the IMPACT project. According to his presentation, the state government has successfully revitalized 113 primary healthcare centres, ensuring that at least one functional facility now stands ready in each electoral ward across Taraba's 16 local government areas. Furthermore, an additional three primary healthcare centres have received comprehensive makeovers courtesy of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) across the three distinct senatorial zones.

On the manpower front, the Taraba State Government has reportedly injected fresh blood into the healthcare system by employing 450 critical personnel, including community health extension workers, medical laboratory technicians, midwives, and community nurses. Additionally, records show that 336 specialized staff members have been engaged specifically for the state’s emergency medical ambulance services, while formal executive approval has been secured for the recruitment of another 480 community-based health workers. These employment drives are widely seen as timely interventions to bridge the persistent human resource deficits plaguing rural medical outposts.

Dr. Nuhu also highlighted remarkable improvements in preventive health indicators, noting that Taraba remarkably emerged as the best-performing state nationwide during recent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Measles-Rubella vaccination campaigns. Through enhanced cold-chain maintenance and targeted outreach, the agency successfully slashed the number of zero-dose children from an alarming 24 percent down to just four percent. Simultaneously, skilled birth attendance rates have surged impressively from 54.7 percent to 74.5 percent, signaling tangible progress in maternal and child healthcare outcomes across the sub-national entity.