The Borno government said on Sunday that it had employed no fewer than 4,300 health workers to fill the shortage of health providers in the state.

The Chief Medical Director of the Borno State Hospitals Management Board, Dr Salisu Kwayarbura, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri that of the number, 1,500 were core professionals.

Kwayarbura gave the breakdown to include 158 doctors, 1,094 nurses and midwives, 29 laboratory scientists, 150 laboratory technicians, 250 community health assistants and 12 pharmacists.

He decried the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents in the state which had affected healthcare delivery and noted that hospitals in the state capital were over stretched.

He said that the board currently had a combined total bed capacity of 3,800 out of which 1000 were in Maiduguri and Jere.

“The board therefore manages these hospitals either through rationing, redeployment or training.

“One of our major challenges is the increasing demand for healthcare services and social services in general.

“The health sector is confronted by an entirely unfamiliar spectrum of the insurgency in which we have not had special training to cope with such situation in the past because it wasn’t anticipated.

“We had quite a number of victims brought into the hospitals as mass casualties numbering between 20 and 100 with various degrees of injuries from bomb blasts.”

Kwayarbura said that the care for such patients required specialised care that posed challenges to the health sector.

“The first thing we did to address this problems was to approach the government and go into collaboration with senior doctors from the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

“That is what we call open arrangement; we engaged senior doctors to take time out of their duties.

“They have been very cooperative in the provision of services, supervision and orientation.

“So far, the state government is spending about N58 million yearly on the visiting senior doctors.

“We have procured more than six generators four of them of 250 KV capacity and two 500 KV.

We utilise about 99,000 litres of diesel every quarter to power the generators in the hospitals.

“The indigent patients are also provided with free meals. Now you can say that is a huge investment on the part of the government to boost healthcare delivery in state.” (NAN)

•Photo shows Gov. Shettima.

Update news