The Bauchi State Government says it has expended about N2.5 billion on construction and renovation of primary and secondary healthcare facilities in the past two years.

Dr Dayyabu Hassan, the Acting Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Health, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Saturday in Bauchi.

Mr Hassan said the objective was to enhance healthcare service delivery as well as optimise health facilities to fast track implementation of the state Minimum Service Package (MSP).

He said that 2,605 health workers were also redeployed to 323 health facilities to enhance access to quality healthcare services at the grassroots.

According to him, the state government will leverage on the existing support including the Health Workforce Programme, to build the capacity of health personnel towards effective service delivery.

The permanent secretary said the state government planned to construct 37 additional health facilities and recruit additional frontline healthcare workers before the end of the year.

This, he said, was required for effective service delivery across the 552 prioritised health facilities under the state’s five-year Investment Plan.

Mr Hassan said the state government also adopted proactive measures to strengthen COVID-19 testing, vaccination and sustain non-pharmaceutical measures as well as scale up integrated outreaches across existing facilities to stem spread of the pandemic.

“The state government will roll out Community Health Influencers Programme Strategy (CHIPS) and other community engagement strategies.

” This will enable us to track pregnant women for ante-natal care and other maternal services,” he said.

The Bauchi State Government on August 12, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Aliko Dangote Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as other development partners for extension of the five-year primary healthcare intervention programme.

(NAN)