As part of its oversight functions and also to ascertain whether there are loopholes and bottlenecks militating against the delivery of standard health care services in the state general hospitals, the Nasarawa State House of Assembly Committee on Health on Tuesday visited the State Hospitals Management Board (HMB).

According to a statement by Bilkisu Adamu, Information Officer of the HMB, the seven-man committee was led by its Chairman, Hon Labaran Usman Shafa.

The Secretary of the Committee, Hajia Hadiza M. Bako, explained the reason for their visit which she said was to assist HMB discharge her statutory duty of effectively running the hospitals in the state.

The Chief Medical Director, Dr. Usman George Dangana, who was represented by Director Medical Laboratory Services, Alhaji Rosha Garba, enumerated the numerous challenges facing the board. These include insufficient staffing, poor overhead cost, and insufficient medical equipment.

The members took time to ask questions about the Nigeria State Health Investment Project (NSHIP) which wound down in May; number of personnel interviewed in the pending recruitment exercise, total amount in the budget appropriated to HMB, level of implementation of the budget appropriated and how much revenue was generated by the HMB from January to May.

The CMD informed the Committee of the monitoring and supervisory visits to the General Hospitals/Medical Centre marked as Isolation Centres to ensure they were adequately equipped with all that is required for proper case management. He explained the circumstances that led to the immediate closure of General Hospital Nasarawa Eggon few days ago and the steps taken to fumigate the entire facility and resumption of service delivery as soon as the state government's rapid response team declares it fit.

The Chairman informed the sitting that by next week the committee will invite the CMD and the Management of the Board for further clarification.