Janet Ogundepo
The Federal Government has said that 9,300 Primary Healthcare Centres would be added to the current 8,300 in the next four years.
This was said by the Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate, in his keynote address at a two-day meeting of the Northeast Forum of Health Commissioners, which started yesterday in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.
Pate said that the FG would work with state governments to increase the current 8,300 PHCs to 17,600.
He noted that the initiative would be complemented by the training of 120,000 frontline health workers, expected to be flagged off soon as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President, Bola Tinubu.
Pate, represented by the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Muyi Aina, said the agency would adopt the institutional strengthening and effective coordination of all PHCs to ensure efficient, equitable, quality, trustworthy services and strong collaboration with all stakeholders to achieve frontline health security and provision of healthcare services.
He further emphasised the need for collective interventions by federal, state, and development partners to be more people-oriented and coordinated to achieve overall sustainable goals.
He decried the poor state of health in the North East and called for strong collaboration rather than fragmentation of efforts at national and sub-national levels.
Pate said, “The Nigerian Health Sector Renewal Investment Programme, which encapsulates our strategic vision for the sector was geared towards a cohesive common goal to save lives, reduce both physical and financial pains, and produce health for all Nigerians.”
In his remarks, the Executive Governor of Borno State, Prof Baba Zulum, called on the World Health Organisation to fulfil its promises to the state, adding that the reduction and management of Tuberculosis, the provision of DNA machines for gender-based violence management, and the construction of hospitals some Local Governments should be a priority.
Zulum said, “These promises were not mere expressions of goodwill; they represented lifelines for our people, for mothers delivering children, for victims of unimaginable violence, for entire communities struggling against diseases.”
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