By Amos Tauna
Kaduna State Commissioner for Health and Human Services in Northern Nigeria, Dr. Paul Manya Dogo, says his state government has taken deliberate steps to build resilient and sustainable systems that will ensure improvement in the health care in the state.
He explained that prior to the coming of the present administration in the state, the health system was weak, hence the need for huge investment in revitalising the Primary Healthcare (PHC) system.
Dr. Dogo noted that because of its importance and closeness to the people, the state government made it a priority by making the policy to be the first executive bill passed into law at the inception of the administration.
Dr. Dogo, who stated this at the 2017 first quarter “Open Kaduna State Ministry of Health Budget Scorecard” #OPENKDSMOH, added that the law was aimed at bringing PHC Under One Roof.
According to him, “The state went into partnership with development partners towards strengthening the PHC system along various thematic areas such as governance and leadership, human resources for health, supply chain management, health information management system, referral system, among others.
“We have developed the minimum service package and the service delivery plan for PHC for approval by the governor.
”Government is investing resources towards strengthening routine immunisation, we have 996 functional operational PHC facilities that are providing routine immunisation and outreach services.
“255 PHCs are undergoing expansion and renovation, all contracts agreement signed by both contractors and the client.
“254 contracts agreement have been collected by the contractors, 245 contractors were so far taken to site but only 150 contractors are working on site.”
The Commissioner also added that some PHC have been completed and handed over to the client, while others are at various levels of completion.
The event was jointly organised by the Kaduna State Community Health Research Initiative (CHR) Initiative, Kaduna State Chapters of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Accountability Mechanism for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria.