Ways Yobe govt improved healthcare delivery – Commissioner

What has government done in recent times to improve healthcare delivery? The turning point was on the 21st May 2013 when His Excellency, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam declared a state of emergency on the health sector. With that declaration came a complete change of approach.  The government had a second look at the leadership in the […]

What has government done in recent times to improve healthcare delivery?

The turning point was on the 21st May 2013 when His Excellency, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam declared a state of emergency on the health sector. With that declaration came a complete change of approach. 

The government had a second look at the leadership in the health sector and did a major shake-up of those who ran the sector: the composition of the heads of the agencies as well as the directors holding strategic positions. So, for leadership, we have people who understand the sector and are cut for the job. 

We made critical evaluation of the primary health care and health promotion to ensure people adopt right attitudes to health issues. People have for instance been conditioned to embrace immunization as often as it became necessary, this is why pervasive immunization against the different preventive killer diseases is a widely accepted norm around the state.

What are you doing on the other levels of health care?

On the second level of care, hitherto the hospitals were mostly dilapidated. This government has renovated or reconstructed about 66 per cent of hospitals. Also, to ensure that Yobe people access quality health care services and bridge the gap in human resources, government decided to build a second referral centre. 

The only tertiary referral centre, built by the Federal Government, the Federal Medical Centre, is in Nguru. And Nguru is quite far away from here (Damaturu). It’s about 300 kilometres away. The Yobe State Government came up with the Yobe University Teaching Hospital to provide tertiary health care and service the state-owned university by training all cadres of health workers.

 The hospital rolled out services on the 15th of April 2017. So, it’s already a reality. We have the latest technology and the hospital is intended to make considerable contributions towards curbing medical tourism by Nigerians to other countries. Nigeria has a disheartening history of medical tourism to other countries. 

Thousands of Nigerians travel abroad for medical attention every month, a pattern that severely questions the foresight of Nigeria’s leadership. We want to make a difference at our level here. 

Primarily, we don’t want Yobe people to be referred away from the state. Referrals are normal around the world as there are conditions for which either specialists or facilities are scarce, but we want to reduce the need for referrals to the barest minimum. 

We want to acquire the necessary facilities, take on the right professionals and attract people to the state for quality health care delivery.

What are your health interventions for the poor?

The executive governor has long given us the matching order that all accident victims taken to any hospital across the state must be treated without charge. That’s one of the ways we ensure that people who need critical medical attention get it. We don’t ask for relations. We don’t ask for money. We treat free. 

Another way is for people who have major medical challenge that require much money should be recommended for support. Many people with conditions such as renal failure needing transplant have been supported in that light. 

Also, all victims of Boko Haram have always been treated free of charge. These are some of the pragmatic ways we ensure that people are able to have services they need. And if you go to our hospitals, you will notice that even for the services we charge, our charges are some of the least in the country.

You recently celebrated your status as a state that has not had any polio incident for four years. How did you achieve this?

It is a feat and the governor and health partners are determined to see that Yobe does not become a state dragging Nigeria back. We’ve put a lot of strategies in place to ensure that, although we are at risk because we have a neighboring state with cases of polio identified rather recently, it doesn’t cross to us. 

We are making all the moves, including widespread anti-polio vaccination and stopping people not duly vaccinated from entering the state. That’s how much sustaining zero-polio status means to us. We are determined to sustain it.