The Ogun State government, in conjunction with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and development partners on health, has organised a training programme on District Health Information System for Local Immunization Officers in the state in order to ensure adequate collation of data on the public health sector.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, while speaking at the venue of the training in Ijebu-Ode, urged the participants drawn from across the Primary Health Care Centres in the state to take advantage of the training to ensure optimal performance in their local council areas.
Ipaye, according to his media aide, Mrs. Kemi Ogungbade, explained that the primary objective of the programme was to facilitate quality routine immunization data collection in public health centres across the state, saying that the monitoring and evaluation department in each local government area would be given a laptop computer to replace the traditional methods.
‘’The idea of the laptop computers was initiated because it is mobile and can be used for a while, when there is power outage’,’ he said.
The commissioner assured that the health ministry would not compromise standard in ensuring that adequate data on health were kept in the state, advising all beneficiaries of the training to make the best use of the progamme for more efficiency in the area of health care delivery at the grassroots.
Also speaking, the State Coordinator, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Mr. Adesina Adelakun, disclosed that Ogun was one of 18 states selected for the implementation of the initiative.
Adelakun said that the programme would make data on immunization more accessible at the local government level.
In their good will messages, representatives of the development partners, Mr. Saliuh Nasir of the European Union Support to Immunization Governance in Nigeria as well as Mr. Kunle Akerele of African Field Epidemiology Network, pledged to assist in the delivery of efficient health care services to the people.
Speaking on behalf of the participants, the Chairman, Local Immunization Officers in the state, Rev. Cannon Adedeji Adepena, assured that they would make effective use of the equipment given them for efficient and reliable gathering of health information data.
