A Non-Governmental Organisation, Sightsavers International, has raised concerns about the paucity of staff for eye health in Plateau.

Dr Sunday Isiyaku, the Country Director of Sight Savers for Nigeria and Ghana, raised the concern during a courtesy visit to Gov. Simon Lalong, on Tuesday, at Government House, Jos.

Isiyaku had led a delegation of his management team and its partner Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM) to the governor, as part of efforts to partner with the state in establishing a comprehensive eye health programme.

He urged the Plateau government to critically review the situation and take appropriate action, to enable the success of the state’s eye health programme.

He said the state needed more ophthalmologists and ophthalmic nurses, adding that the state has no optometrist in its employment, and has only six tertiary health facilities.

” There are 22 ophthalmologists working in the state, but only two are working with the state government and both are in hospital administration and not in full-time clinical practice.

“Of the 20 in clinical practice, 18 are working in Jos-North. The required number for the entire Plateau state population is 47.

“There are 22 ophthalmic nurses in the state government employment. For the state population there should be at least 42 ophthalmic nurses,” he said.

He said the visit was to intimate the governor of their findings from the needs assessment survey of the state, to enable the successful take-off of the eye health programme.

” The programme will support the establishment of a state-owned comprehensive eye health program that is well-coordinated, accessible, acceptable, affordable, and sustainable, based on national policies and guidelines for the over four million people of Plateau state,” he said.

He said the intervention will be a modern, inclusive eye health programme, that would involve people with disabilities in all its implementation stages, saying that the group was already involved at its planning stage.

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The director said its partner, CBM will support Plateau in realising the programme’s objectives, especially its accessibility to vulnerable groups and marginalized communities.

Isiyaku commended the governor for his efforts to provide comprehensive eye health care for Plateau people saying, he was the first governor to request for partnership with the organisation.

He said sight savers and CBM would support the eye health programme with funds for three years and will support the establishment of an eye health programme in government hospitals selected from its senatorial zones.

He said the programme would also support the renovation of some hospitals, train middle-level eye health workers and facilitate its accessibility in rural areas, expressing the hope that the programme will be a model for other states to emulate.

Responding, Lalong assured the NGO of his support for the success of the programme, especially its effort to decentralise the programme to other zones.

He said that the state government was the first to establish the Disability Rights Commission in the country because of its commitment to improving their welfare, expressing satisfaction over their involvement in the eye health programme from its planning stage.

In another development, the governor has also assured a delegation of the Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP), of his support in the implementation of their projects in Plateau.

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He gave the assurance when the team, led by Mr Ayuba Anda, a water resources specialist, paid a courtesy visit to him at Government House.

The team was in Plateau for an assessment of their project sites in the state, to ensure that they met the deadline for completion and were executed to standard.