Abstract
The study was designed to ascertain the extent to which Health Extension
Education Programmes (HEEP) improved healthcare delivery in Boki Local
Government of Cross River State. Specifically, the study determined the extent
to which HEEP improved maternal and child health, disease prevention and
control as well as early identification of diseases and treatment. The study
answered three research questions. Descriptive survey design was adopted.
Population of the study comprised of 305 health workers in the ten primary
health centres in the ten wards of Boki LGA. A random sample of 100 workers
was drawn for the study. Questionnaire was used to elicit information from
the respondents. Data was analyzed using mean. Findings revealed that,
health workers to a high extent benefited from the Health extension education
programmes in their abilities to educate people on needs and methods to
prevent common diseases, provide remedial treatment, encourage child
spacing, identify early symptoms, handle pre and post natal cases, reduce
maternal and infant mortality and improved relationship with patients. The
paper recommended that, health extension education programmes should be
integrated into health workers knowledge, skills update and re-training
programmes for an improvement in maternal and child health, disease
prevention and early identification of disease.