By David Odama (In Lafia, Nasarawa State)
Nasarawa State Governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, has ordered the immediate recruitment of 37 medical doctors to boost healthcare delivery across the state.
Sule who disclosed this while flagging off a free medical outreach in Nasarawa Local Government Area at the weekend, explained that the recruitment of additional doctors has become necessary to meet the demands for doctors who will work in various health facilities across the state,
The governor, while reiterating the commitment of his administration to providing quality healthcare services to the people, added that the additional doctors would be deployed to the newly completed clinics built by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) office. He stressed further that this informed the decision by his administration to scale down the medical outreach to reach every part of the state.
"Siince the commencement of the exercise, nine local government areas have so far been covered under the free medical outreach, with 819 surgeries carried out, 18, 000 patients treated for different ailments. These treatment include eye surgeries, ultrasonic scanning and laboratory investigations", Sule declared.
The Governor pointed out that with the outreach being carried out in Nasarawa Local Government Area, more medically challenged people will be covered by the exercise as the outreach was intended to facilitate the medication and treatment of the vulnerable and the less privileged in the state.
Governor Sule, however, highlighted some key interventions within the health sector under his administration to include, procurement of functional mobile clinics aimed at facilitating medication and treatment of the vulnerable and less privileged in the society.
The governor who commended the frontline health workers in the state for their resilience and support to government as well making the exercise worthwhile and beneficial to the people of the state, also lauded the state ministry of health and other agencies, Nasarawa State Save One Million Lives Programme for sustaining the collaborative effort towards enhancing the health conditions of the people.
Establishment of infectious diseases diagnosis and research center to serve as a research hub; a centre for innovation and operational research, establishment of the state health insurance agency, to provide accessible and affordable healthcare services, with the agency so far, enrolling 86, 682 beneficiaries from both the formal and informal sectors.
"I assure you that this administration will continue to accord premium to the provisions of the healthcare at primary, secondary and tertiary health institutions, with a view to ensuring a healthy society," he stated.
Governor Sule specifically commended development partners, particularly the Doctors on the Move Africa, for their efforts at sustaining such worthy collaboration and calling in other NGOs to emulate the gesture which is beneficial to the people of the state.
Earlier, the State Commissioner for Health, Pharmacist Ahmed Baba Yahaya, had said the exercise is expected to cover not less than 2,000 people in Nasarawa Local Government Area.
The Health Commissioner added that like previous exercises held in Awe and Kokona local government areas, the outreach in Nasarawa will also include the flagging off enrollment of people into the state's health insurance scheme.
Also speaking, Nasarawa Local Government Chairman, Hon Mohammed Sani Ottoz, announced that, so far, 234 persons have been enrolled into the state Health Insurance Scheme, following which he identified three persons to be symbolically presented with their registration cards. NNL.
