The Bauchi government says it has initiated a N7.8 billion project to upgrade the Bauchi Specialist Hospital to enhance healthcare service delivery in the state.

The health commissioner, Sani Mohammed, said this while presenting the scorecard of Governor Bala Mohammed’s administration in the health sector in the last year.

He said the project was designed to rehabilitate and equip the facility with modern medical gadgets to meet international standards, adding that the project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The commissioner said the state government also embarked on a rehabilitation project of 12 general hospitals and 212 primary health facilities under the second phase of the healthcare infrastructure development programme.

Mr Mohammed said the government would soon install solar systems in 27 general hospitals, the health ministry’s headquarters, the Primary Healthcare Development Agency and the Hospital Management Board.

To address manpower shortages, Mr Mohammed said the governor had approved the recruitment of 10,000 doctors and other cadres of health workers in Bauchi.

He said the Mohammed administration also reviewed and approved a 65-year retirement age for lecturers in the state-owned colleges of health as part of measures to enhance human resource development in the sector.

“The state has reviewed the service year for lecturers in the Aliko Dangote College of Nursing and Sciences, Bauchi, and the Bill/Melinda Gates College of Health Technology, Ningi, by an additional five years.

“Medical and other health students will begin the pre-service scheme, and after graduation, they will serve their bond.

“The Mohammed administration restored the pre-service scheme and lifted the employment embargo on health workers to boost human capital development and promote uptake of medicare,” he said.

Mr Mohammed said the administration invested N250 million in the Bauchi State Agency for Drugs and Medical Consumables and contributed N800 million in counterpart funds for the immunisation programme while 10,000 heating aid kits were distributed to health facilities in partnership with the Olusegun Obasanjo Foundation.

Mr Mohammed said the government, in collaboration with development partners, established medical oxygen plants in Azare, Misau, Ningi, Tafawa Balewa, the Bauchi Specialist Hospital, and the Federal Medical Centre, Azare, to enhance quality services in the state.

However, a surgeon, Hassan Garba, urged the Bauchi government to prioritise quality data for planning and policy implementation.

He called for deploying data analysts to public and private health facilities to develop unified statistics for research and development programmes.

“Training of lecturers should also be prioritised; this will further translate into quality services to be provided by the growing human resource coming on board,” Mr Garba said.

(NAN)