SURE-P: fg to employ 9,000 midwives, nurses

IN its renewed effort to curb rising maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria, the Federal Government, under its Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P), is to employ 9,000 midwives, nurses and community health workers, nationwide.The midwives to be employed will be deployed to rural areas of the six geopolitical zones of the country and will be assisted by the Community Health Workers (CHEW) and Village Health Workers (VHW) in curbing maternal and infant mortality in rural areas.Disclosing this on Tuesday, in Bauchi, during a maternal and child health orientation programme organised for midwives and community development workers, the North-East zonal coordinator, performance and result, SURE-P, Mr Ali Fatoma, stated that the programme was efforts of the Primary Health Care Development Agency.'This is one of the safety net programmes for unemployed midwives and nurses. The other component is on infrastructure and we have one on employment. Already, there exist nurses and midwives by the state government, but what the SURE-P MCH intends to do is to bring in more nurses and midwives and even village health workers to attend to pregnant women and infants,' Fatoma stated. He informed that under the SURE-P programme, the Federal Government would reinvest its oil subsidy funds into a combination of programmes, including health, so as to stimulate the economy and alleviate poverty through critical infrasturiure and safety net projects.According to him, the SURE-P MCH programme of the Federal Government would provide additional funds over the next four years, in order to improve the lives of women and children under the ages of five in the country, with a view to reducing maternal and infant mortality rates.
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