By Ebriku John Friday
Cross River State Governor, Sir Ben Ayade and the state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Betta Edu, on Tuesday expressed excitement over the acredition of the schools of Nursing in Calabar and Ogoja as well as the School of Midwifery in Obudu.
This is just as the governor reinstated his commitment to improving health care delivery in the state. He made this know while receiving the Honorable Commissioner for Health Dr Betta Edu and the accreditation team who presented the Full accreditation certificate of the schools to him.
In the words of the Governor, “I thank the Nursing and midwifery Council of Nigeria for approving the college of Nursing Sciences Itigidi, while granting Cross River state schools of nursing and Midwifery full accreditation and increasing the Number of students we can admit & train per time.
“This will help fill the man power gap that exist in the health system. I strongly commend the hard work of the proactive health team, urging them to work harder for the achievement of universal Health Coverage in the state”.
This is coming on the hills of the fact that the Cross River state Health sector has continued to break records and raise the bar with great achievements experienced in the last one year.
One of which is the Full Accreditation status to last for the next five (5) years conveyed in a letter from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria Secretary-General and Registrar AlH. Faruk Umar Abubakar to the Honorable Commissioner for Health Dr Betta Edu for Cross River state schools of Nursing and midwifery Calabar Ogoja and Obudu .
Right from inception, the schools of Nursing in Calabar, and the School of Nursing Ogoja as well as the School of Midwifery Obudu have operated with provisional accreditation as the schools were unable to meet the requirements for full accreditation status.
In 2011, the provisional status of this schools were taken away as the didn’t meet the councils requirements for even a provisional status. In 2018 the regained the provisional status with all its limitations, which has now been converted to a full accreditation status with an increase bench mark from 40 students intake to 100 in school of nursing Calabar and from 50 to 75 in the other two schools.
The Commissioner for Health Dr Betta Edu who was overwhelmed with joy said “with the paucity of skilled Health work force in the state, it has become expedient for state to get a full accreditation status which will allow us to train more student and have more skilled hands to deliver quality health care services across the state. We thank the Governor for approving the massive work that took place in those schools.
“I thank my super team at the Ministry of Health, the accreditation team and the council for this great breakthrough in the health sector of the state, the benefit of this is enormous”.
Present at the presentation was the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Bar Takon Asu Takon, the Director of nursing services Dr Pauline Obute and the Chairman of Accreditation team Mrs Abasi Offiong, who expressed their gratitude to the Governor for all his support to ensure this result was achieved.
