By Nimake Earland
The administration of Governor Bala Mohammed in Bauchi state has conducted recruitment exercise for 111 doctors and 220 midwives, to cushion the shortage of health personnel in the state.
This was disclosed by Garba Gamawa, the Deputy Director, planning, research and statistics, Bauchi State Ministry of Health at a one-day meeting for Civil Society Organization (CSO) and stakeholders in the health sector, which was organized by Community Health Research (CHR) and supported by USAID Integrated Health Program(IHP) in Bauchi.
He said the state government was working towards addressing some of the challenges in the health sector, pointing out that the 2021 health budget has captured and made provisions for the procurement of Ambulances.
“The State government is working to address some of the challenges experienced in the health sector such as shortage of manpower, inadequate supply of drugs and commodities and shortage of ambulances in the PHCs.Most of them have been captured in the budget and will be adequately provided for” he said
Speaking earlier, the CHR project manager, Mr. Salisu Mohammed said that the meeting was organized to fashion out a unique strategy for effective communications among Civil Society Organizations, adding that the meeting would strengthen relationships among CSOs and MDAs.
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He said that advocacy messages were developed to bring changes in primary healthcare centers, hence the essence of the stakeholder meeting.
The CHR Project manager listed some of the issues in PHCs to include Inadequate distribution of human resources for health, inadequate supply of drugs and commodities in primary healthcare centers, inadequate emergency ambulances in PHC centers across the state amongst others.
Mohammed noted that inadequate and delay in releases of PHC funds was an issue for advocacy among others, stressing that the need for coordinated advocacy in the state cannot be over-emphasized.
“Issues around PHC have to be advocated for in the state. This meeting is held quarterly with stakeholders to identify and discuss advocacy issues. The meeting is also aimed at developing messages to reach out to policy makers in the state” he said.
