Onyemelukwe has pledged to upgrade health-care facilities, If elected as Anambra Governor

Lady Chidi Onyemelukwe, a governorship contender running on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November 6 Anambra governorship election, has vowed to give attention to the state’s failing health care facilities.

Onyemelukwe spoke to the media before departing for Abuja, where he would participate in the party’s multi-stakeholder consultative conference ahead of the party’s primary elections on June 26.

Lady Onyemelukwe, the first daughter of the second Republic’s Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, remarked that despite the modest efforts of previous governments, Anambra continues to have challenges in the delivery of healthcare services.

“We have described a bottom-up strategy in our manifesto,” she explained further. Our goal is to provide water and basic sanitation to the 629 primary healthcare centers, health clinics, and health posts in Anambra State, as well as appropriate staffing, fair compensation, bedding, nets, and healthcare supplies.

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As a result, we aim to undertake a progressive closure of the infrastructural gaps that exist at these Primary Health Centers, which will be accomplished gradually, depending on available resources and competing objectives.”

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According to her, if primary health care centers (PHCs) are stabilized and encouraged to recover the trust of citizens to approach them for their fundamental healthcare requirements, the burden on secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities would be alleviated.

She also said that she was trying to reduce the state’s newborn and maternal death rates, indicating that if her bottom-up public health strategy was actively followed, life expectancy would increase. Onyemelukwe is a former Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo.

She stated that her government will promote the state’s health insurance program in order to increase the number of people who are covered by it.

“Our strategy is to assist us in carefully targeting and enrolling people who work in the organized private sector,” she stated.

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“We want to use tools such as tax breaks and other incentives to attract this specific business user group to the market,” says the company. Once they are in, the system may reach out to the underprivileged in the informal sector and bring them into the fold.

Her administration is prepared to maintain and institutionalize periodic subventions from the state government to qualified faith-based and other private healthcare service providers, she stated, adding that she is confident in the state’s ability to do so.

“The provision of healthcare services is a crucial component of our #RESTOREAnambra strategy. In conclusion, I want to assure you that, if given the opportunity, we would pursue people-centered healthcare programs with zeal.”