The Ondo State Government has called on the Federal Government to again think through its decision to lay off thousands of health workers engaged under the SURE-P Midwives Scheme, insisting that doing so would cause a setback for the gains recorded on maternal and child survival in the last few years.

Commissioner of Health in the state, Dr Dayo Adeyanju gave the advice at a meeting in Akure with the 400 health workers engaged under the programme in the State.

According to Adeyanju, the Federal Government should instead block leakages in the system and possibly gradually exit from the programme instead of a sudden withdrawal, because of the significant impact the programme has had at reducing maternal and child mortality in Nigeria.

“The Federal Government should not have pulled-out completely, even if they want to do so, it should be a gradual process, because if they are able to block the leakages in the system, especially with the newly introduced Performance Based Financing, it will help sustain the programme for more effective health service delivery, especially in the grassroots.”‎ Adeyanju said.

The commissioner however disclosed that the Ondo State Government was working out plans to retain the over 400 health workers employed under the SURE-P Programme of the Federal Government in the state, adding that the state government was willing to keep them in the system, considering that they contribute immensely to the Abiye and Agbebiye initiatives of the present government in the state.

He said: “You would recall that last week, the Federal Government decided to withdraw from the SURE-P Midwives Scheme, saying it cannot sustain it anymore.

“This would create a lot of human resources gap at the Primary Health Care level, which is the most critical level in the health system of any developing nation. Therefore, as a state government, we cannot allow this to happen”.