Still on the rehabilitation of Toro General Hospital

I was delighted to see the well-equipped General Hospital, Dambam, on the Facebook page of Governor Bala Abdulkadir of Bauchi.  This is indeed progress that deserves an applause. Fixing Bauchi State’s health centres is Governor Bala’s priority, I guess. This is because we have seen countless primary healthcare centres as well as other general hospitals fixed […]

I was delighted to see the well-equipped General Hospital, Dambam, on the Facebook page of Governor Bala Abdulkadir of Bauchi.  This is indeed progress that deserves an applause.

Fixing Bauchi State’s health centres is Governor Bala’s priority, I guess. This is because we have seen countless primary healthcare centres as well as other general hospitals fixed by him in the state.

Sadly, despite the giant strides of the governor towards fixing the state infrastructure, particularly the health sector, ours in Toro is lagging behind though we learnt that a contract for the project has been awarded.

Sir, the General Hospital, Toro, attends to no fewer than 300 patients daily from five different local governments. These include Jos East and Jos North in Plateau State; Lere in Kaduna State, and Tafawa Balewa and Toro in Bauchi State. This implies that approximately 1.5 million people are sharing the facility from five local government areas.

Thus, the hospital is the busiest health facility in the state apart from the Specialist Hospital and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, all in Bauchi metropolis. As such, patients suffer a lot before getting attended to by medical personnel.

The congestion at the hospital is very critical as pregnant women ache two to three days before seeing a doctor.

I am, therefore, appealing to the state government to speed up work on the project to bring succor to the population.

Chiamaka Awa Rita, Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri