The Bauchi government has uncovered more than 100 ghost health workers in the state and vowed to punish them under the civil service rules.

Sambo Alkali, the executive chairman of the Bauchi State Hospital Management Board, made the remark at a news conference in Bauchi on Thursday.

According to him, the names of all identified ghost workers would soon be submitted to Governor Bala Mohammed and subsequently dealt with in accordance with civil service rules.

“We are currently working on a verification exercise to fish out all those ghost workers people have been talking about.

“Recently, we have done it in our five facilities, and we came up with more than 100 ghost health workers whose names will ultimately be submitted to the governor.

“What we are doing in Bauchi to curtail the issue of shortage of doctors, which is a global issue, is that the governor has approved a scheme which is giving us a beautiful result,’’ he said.

Mr Alkali said that they are currently engaged with almost 40 doctors in the scheme, which ranges from consultants to medical officers who were carefully selected and scientifically distributed based on the available data.

He explained that it was a pull system that brought the professionals on board, adding that they also supervise the hospital’s facilities.

He said that they were mandated by the governor to conduct a comprehensive gap analysis to improve service delivery.

Mr Alkali said that the governor also mandated the state committee on health to produce a healthcare scheme of service that would address the salary issue and woo medical professionals to work in Bauchi.

He stated that the plan was to equate the state health workers’ salaries with those of the federal government.

According to him, this is nearing completion and will be submitted to the governor for further implementation.

Muhammed Dambam, the health commissioner, said that the governor had reiterated his commitment to collaborate with relevant agencies and partners to establish ready-to-use therapeutic food in Bauchi.

He explained that the essence of RUTF was to reduce malnutrition among children, adding that the government pledged to improve the recapitalisation of the drugs and medical consumables agency in the state.

Mr Dambam said that the governor also pledged to channel N250 million to the agency this year, as he did in 2024.

 (NAN)