From Segun Babatunde in Bauchi
Bauchi State Deputy Governor, Senator Baba Tela has disclosed that the state government will very soon lift the embargo placed on employment employment in the state’s health sector with a view to improving healthcare delivery in the state, especially at the primary level.
Senator Tela made this known yesterday while speaking at the state primary healthcare retreat for 2021, with the theme “Towards Building a Sustainable and Resilient Primary Healthcare System in Bauchi State”, organised for stakeholders held in Gombe, the Gombe State capital.
The deputy governor said the state government placed priority on implementing programmes that would improve health care delivery in the state.
According to him, “We are working on the verification exercise report to see that the health care system gets more human resources in the state,” he told the stakeholders at the retreat, including traditional and religious leaders, development partners, federal, state and local government officials in the health sector, among others.
Tela disclosed that the outstanding sum of N350million counterpart funds in the health sector had been settled by the state government.
“The administration is committed to health care delivery that is why the state had settled the outstanding counterpart fund with partners to the tune of N350 million,” he disclosed.
Tela, who doubles as the chairman of the state’s Primary Healthcare Stakeholders Committee, urged the stakeholders to deliberate and come out with robust policy and programmes capable of strengthening the state’s health sector.
In his address, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Sama’ila Dahuwa said that the state government needed policies and programmes that would drive opportunities for sustaining primary healthcare delivery system in the state.
According to the commissioner, the lack of sustainability of primary health centres in the state would dampen productivity of the health care system and delivery in the state, considering the fact that primary healthcare service provided basic health care to over 80% of the citizens.
Dahuwa, however, said that the retreat was an avenue for stakeholders to brainstorm and come up with a valuable programme for effective healthcare delivery for the citizens of the state.
The representative of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) at the retreat, Alhaji Bashir Maidabino, commended the Bauchi State government for its commitment to a sustainable primary healthcare system.
He appealed to the state government and relevant stakeholders to take ownership of community health services, asserting that this would improve sustainability and effective health care delivery.
Maidabino equally urged the stakeholders to take advantage of the retreat to come up with programmes and projects that would strengthen primary health care services for the citizens.
