BY John Odhe, YENAGOA
The Bayelsa State Ministry of Health has inaugurated a 35-member Public Health Emergency Management committee to strengthen public health emergency preparedness and response systems.
The newly established body is tasked with safeguarding the state against medical crises and ensuring a swift, coordinated response to healthcare emergencies.
The committee is led by the deputy governor, Dr. Peter Akpe while the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Seiyefa Brisibe is to serve as vice chairman.
Dr. Biobelu Abaye is the secretary of the committee alongside a diverse group of other medical and administrative professionals serving as members.
Inaugurating the committee, the commissioner for health, Brisibe, charged the committee to be proactive and forthright so they could prevent emergencies or promptly curtail them if they occur, emphasizing that every Bayelsan’s life was valuable, hence government’s heavy investment in a robust healthcare delivery system.
He said the committee was expected to ensure that all local healthcare strategies were fully aligned with the existing national framework for medical emergencies.
He stressed that the 35-member team would coordinate rapid responses to disease outbreaks and other public health threats, extending to overseeing resource mobilization, managing budget allocations, and maintaining strict financial accountability during health crises.
He also charged the committee with prompt high-level risk communication, community engagement, and social mobilization across the stat.
Brisibe added that the team would be responsible for continuously monitoring and evaluating the performance of emergency responses to ensure maximum efficacy.
Earlier, in his opening remarks, Permanent Secretary for the ministry of health, Dr. Jones Stow urged the committee to utilize their technical expertise in supporting the government’s mandate to deliver timely, affordable, and quality healthcare, specifically during public health emergencies.
Stow noted that structurally, the team would provide top-level leadership, legal support, policy direction, and operational oversight to the Public Health Emergency Operation Center and its related bodies.
According to him, the bodies included managing multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral, and multi-jurisdictional approaches to state health security.
