By El-Ameen Ibrahim/Abuja
As part of its efforts to enhance the healthcare delivery services, the Kaduna State Government has announced the establishment of 72 Free Medical Service Centers for children under the age of five and expectant mothers.
The State Commissioner for Health, Hajiya Umma Ahmed disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at a two-day engagement meeting with Kaduna State House of Assembly members on “Health Financing and Leadership.
She affirmed the State government commitment to improve the functionality of more already existing facilities while pushing local governments to set up free medical services in their areas.
Kad Health Commissioner reminded that the State Governor, Uba Sani, had recently provided 290 primary healthcare facilities with cutting-edge technology in a bid to alleviate maternal and infant mortality problems, particularly in rural regions.
She informed that the administration would ensure that primary healthcare facilities have qualified staff, enough medication, and equipment.
“We have started setting up under-5 clinics that provide free medical services to pregnant women and children under 5, we established around 72 but we are attempting to make them more functional.
“We make sure the primary healthcare facilities have the necessary staff, medications, and supplies. To address these challenges, the Governor recently dispersed 290 primary healthcare facilities outfitted with cutting-edge technology” She said.
The Commissioner also emphasized that most women in rural areas fail to give birth to their babies in hospitals and fail to take their young children to hospitals, which leads to more deaths among pregnant women and children under the age of five, which is the reason, the Kaduna State strengthened its infrastructure and provided adequate medical facilities, including primary healthcare facilities.
“We are working hard to minimize these indices by making sure that pregnant women visit antenatal clinics, have their infants in hospitals, and then have their newborns cared for from 0-5”, she added. “We are also pushing greater vaccination.”
The Kaduna State House of Assembly’s Deputy Speaker, Hon. Magaji Danjuma, stated in his submission that the state legislature’s plan policy was to ensure adequate voting of budgetary allocation towards achieving health-focused policies, adding that the legislature would work with healthcare agencies like the Kaduna Contributory Health Management Agency to ensure the implementation of health-related policies in the state.
“On our part, we will provide the enabling environment to also ensure that after allocating whatever funds are required, we also supervise and ensure that the needful is done, as well as ensure that there is the required staff and personnel that should be on the ground to be able to execute the required policies.”
Danjuma emphasized that the state governance had health as one of its top concerns, but he also contended that poverty in Nigeria is a network of other problems, including access to health care, insecurity, a lack of food security, and inadequate protection of lives and property.
“One of the objectives of the Kaduna State Government is health, and because poverty in Nigeria is a network of other concerns, we must make sure that we address all the necessary areas, or else people would be struggling with poverty,” the Deputy Speaker underscored. Let’s all return to the underlying causes of these problems and deal with them.
Speaking in addition, Malam Abubakar Hassan, Director-General of the Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Agency, said that the state government had allocated 15% of its budget for health advancement, adding that it offered confirmation for the funds allocated by the state in the area of health provision in prior years.
The Kaduna State Government has been successful in doing this during the past several years, according to Danjuma.
“What is more constructive is to begin to put things down,” he added, in recent years, the state has also allocated 15% of our budget, which is more than the average for the country, to health.
“We have made significant progress at various levels in service delivery as well as demand creation parts of the state’s health sector, transformation around the primary health care development agency, service delivery, improvement in drug administration system through creation of drug administration and creation of self financing through the Kaduna State Health Contributory Management Authority,” he said
