Students offering medical and health courses in Bauchi will enjoy automatic employment after graduation.

Governor Bala Mohammed announced the scheme on Thursday in Bauchi while inaugurating two newly constructed primary healthcare centres in Gidan Dubu and Fadamamada communities in the Bauchi metropolis.

“As a measure to maintain the major optimum requirements to the healthcare profession in the state, this administration has reintroduced the pre-service scheme where students offering medical and health courses are given automatic employment,” he stated. “That is our health students, the midwives and the nurses in our tertiary institutions.”

He said the two health facilities were constructed with development partners like UNICEF, European Union (EU) and USAID.

According to him, the government places a high premium on healthcare delivery as it believes that “health is wealth and a healthy society is a productive society.”

He said his administration had tried to address the health sector’s challenges, especially in service delivery, infrastructure and human resource development.

“Consequently, since the inception of this administration, we have been able to construct four general hospitals where there were none as well as 15 primary healthcare centres,” he explained. “We have also renovated and equipped 10 secondary and 10 primary health facilities across the state.”

“These are in addition to the 107 and 204 primary and secondary health facilities, renovated and upgraded through the support of EU, UNICEF and NSHIP projects, respectively,” he said.

Mr Mohammed assured the people of the state that all developmental projects started by this administration would be completed within the remaining life span of his administration.

Also, the health commissioner, Sabiu Gwalabe, lauded the governor for the high priority given to the health sector in the state. 

The commissioner called on the benefiting communities to appreciate the present government for making their decade-long dreams a reality.

Oluseyi Olusehinde, a health specialist from UNICEF, said the organisation had been enjoying a partnership with the Bauchi government.

He said, “In addition to the contribution you are making yearly to this PHC MoU, we are glad to say that every year, you are adding new structures, new primary healthcare centres to the number of primary healthcare centres in Bauchi state.

“We are also grateful to say that by the beginning of your administration, there were some wards in Bauchi without PHC centres, but as of now, we are glad to say that you have covered all those wards.”

The Bauchi government, on November 17, allocated N30.5 billion to the health ministry out of the N202 billion 2023 budget presented by the governor to the House of Assembly for approval.

(NAN)