its Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS)
Programme nationwide.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in his visit to Nasarawa on Tuesday
directed the ministry to "synergise with other states to roll out the
programme to enable the less-privileged and the rural dwellers to have
access to health services."
CHIPS, developed by the National Primary Health Care Development
Agency, NPHCDA, aims to link health work force to rural and
underserved communities in hopes of bridging gaps in access to health
care.
Speaking on the development, NPHCDA executive director, Faisal Shuaib,
said the CHIPS agents will go from house to house to provide first aid
care and health education.
According to him, those selected from communities will stimulate
residents to seek care in primary health centres closest to them.
"They will play roles of effective demand generation and health
behaviour change communication, provide basic emergency services to
households, support community surveillance, collect and transmit
household level health-related information on a regular basis and so
much more," Shuaib said.
He added that 200,000 agents working under the programme across the
country will be the "largest aggregation of community health workers
in Africa".
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