Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Paul Dogo, says the government is processing the recruitment of over 1,000 health professionals to boost health care delivery in the state.

Dogo said during his ministry’s third quarter interaction with the media and Civil Society Organisations in Kaduna that 418 of health personnel had been issued with appointment letters and their postings had commenced.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the session was organised at the instance of CSOs under Kaduna State MNCH Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM).

According to him, the remaining appointments would be processed by the state Civil Service Commission.

The commissioner said those being recruited include 100 doctors, 1,000 nurses, 25 pharmacists, 30 technicians, 10 physiotherapist and 20 nutritionists.

The rest are 10 medical record staff, 10 radiographers and 10 dental technologists.

Dogo said the new workers would be deployed to hospitals and primary health centres across the state.

NAN recalls that the state government had during a similar event in January this year, announced plans to recruit 1, 245 healthcare workers to address the challenges of maternal health in the state.

Meanwhile, the government said it had unveiled a free health programme for elderly persons suffering from hypertension and diabetes.

Dogo said the programme covers elderly persons from 70 years and above and other vulnerable people.

“Kaduna state government is working in collaboration with a giant pharmaceutical company to pay a tune of N200, 000 per year, should any of the registered elderly patients be admitted to hospital.”

According to him, the state government had trained 200 healthcare providers to manage those with diabetes and hypertension.

Earlier, Co-Chairman of KADMAM, Mustapha Jumare, had expressed concern about the slow pace of work on the upgrade of 255 Primary Health Centres in the state.

Jumare said a survey on the project by the CSOs at the end of September showed that only 11 out of the 255 health centres were upgraded.

“The information from the State Ministry of Health has shown than the state government is currently renovating and upgrading the 255 PHCs, which are at various stages of completion.

“As at September 2017, 11 of the 255 PHCs targeted had been completed.

“The information has also shown that MNCH2 has supported the state in the renovation and upgrading of 40 PHCs.

” In order to ensure that the state government has fulfilled its commitment of renovating and upgrading the 255 PHCs, KADMAM monitored the facilities that were said to have been upgraded by the state government and MNC2.

“The survey was done to determine whether the PHCs had been upgraded to the minimum standards as recommended by the NPHCDA.” (NAN)

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