Bauchi: Health And Where It Matters

By Bello Abubakar
In assumption of office 2 years ago after having a stunning landslide victory over his hapless opponent, Hon Auwal Jatau of the PDP and others, Governor Mohammed Abubakar quickly swung into action by launching a revolution of sorts in the agricultural, health, education, roads and infrastructure, water provision, manpower development, women and youth empowerment sectors with an array of dazzling services, projects and programs that has surpassed by far other administrations of the state both civilian and military regimes. It’s widely says that, ‘heath is weath’, therefore investing in the health sub-sector of the economy would invariably and perpetually augment the socio-economic well-being of the society. Based on the logical interpretations, it’s only when a person is healthy that he will be able to engage in any meaningful ventures to acquire wealth. Thus, surpass it to say; a healthy society, is equally a wealthy society.
In Bauchi State, the present administration of Abubakar has overwhelmingly recorded an unprecedented feat in all the sectors of the economy after a long epochs of neglects by the previous governments of the state and the health sector was one of the sectors that has the better deals in preeminence. The sector has been accorded with a maximum priority as vaible policies and strategies have been put in place within the two years’ stewardship of the people’s governor.
In accordance with the operational guidelines of the most cardinal agency in the health sector; Bauchi State Hospitals Management Board which was curved out of the Ministry of Health and saddled with the responsibility to oversee the operations of all the general hospitals in the state within the framework of the state and national policies, Abubakar has launched a 5-Points agenda in the sector with a tagline ‘Lafiya Garkuwan Jiki’ which basically set out to; strengthen primary health care, provides access to quality and cost effective drugs, improve funding and creates health education awareness and strategic communication in the health sector.
Taking his policies beyond political agitprop and media hogwash to effective implementations of the designed blueprints, the Bauchi State Government under leadership of Gov. Abubakar has paid one hundred and sixty-two million naira as part of the lingering unpaid state in the MoU with Bill and Melinda Gates and Dangote Foundation with a pivotal view of setting the Emergency Operations Centre on polio and unflinching financial supports for all polio immunisation rounds since inception and that singular commitment has led to the founder, Mr. Bill Gates to write personal acknowledgement to the Governor Abubakar for his supports in strengthening health care funding and ensuring that the 2016 state’s contributions is forthcoming with revitalizing and sustaining the Midwives Internship Programme of NSS/SURE-P respectively.
Gov. Abubakar believed that, for the state to achieved its mission of improved healthcare service delivery, the state owned health related institution must be repositioned to a sound putting and therefore, the government facilitate the accreditation process of the State College of Nursing and Midwifery, and sponsored 15 staffs of the college to foreign training through the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development and World Health Organisation (DFATD-WHO) human resources development project Polio. The forward looking Bauchi State helmsman has also revitalized the Midwives Internship Programme of NSS/SURE-P; completed sponsorship of the maternal, neonatal and child health week as well as rapid response to diarrhea disease outbreak in some affected communities; facilitated the accreditation process of the State College of Nursing and Midwifery while sponsoring 15 staff of the of the State College of Nursing and Midwifery to overseas training through the DFATD/WHO Human Resources Development Project. In the State College of Health Technology in Ningi, the government have facilitated the commencement and accreditation of the Dental Health Services training at the college. Also, the government facilitated the reaccreditation of Medical Laboratory Technician and Health Information Management Department which has successfully led to the 100 per cent increment of student intake in the school.
In the health care related partnership programmes, the state government had recently organised a parley in Abuja with the Development Partners with the Theme, Opportunities for Strategic Partnership and Collaboration which aimed at wooing Development Partners to invest in the Bauchi State Healthcare System. Bauchi State Ministry of Health in collaboration with LEAD/RTI Project also sponsored and organized five days’ workshop in Kaduna on a draft State Strategic Health Development Plan (SSHDP) for Bauchi State for the year 2016-2020 while in the same vein, the state in collaboration with Al-Basar International Foundation has recently organized and sponsored a five day free eye treatment to the citizens and 10,000 patients have successfully been benefited out of which 500 underwent cataract surgery and the exercise involves given out free drugs for different patients.
One will be asking if the government only concentrated on health system improvement, but the projects encompasses the various sectors of the state economy and more on this pipeline includes; government effort in drafting a bill for the establishment of ‘Bauchi State Contributory Health Management Agency’ to effectively improve coverage and access to healthcare service in the state, provision of patient direct feeding and maintenance funds to all General Hospitals, settlement of the salary arrears and prompt and regular payment of salaries, provision of alternative power source, release of funds for improving accommodation for the newly recruited Egyptian doctors, re-introduction of monthly other charges and hospital supervision among others.
To wrapped it up, within two years of the Governor Abubakar’s leadership in Bauchi, the patients and women antenatal attendance to government hospitals has been significantly improved while the infant mortality rate has drastically been addressed, patients access to feeding is overwhelming and that has improved their nutrition status thereby increasing the rate of healing, while the supply of agro-gas diesel to hospital has provided conducive environment for ensuring continuous services delivery. Therefore, these are some indices that culminated to a productive and health conscious Bauchi State under the Governor Abubakar’s regime.

– Abubakar wrote in from Bauchi

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