By Tayo Joseph, Lagos
The Borno Government on Monday said it had recruited 100 doctors to enhance healthcare delivery in the state.
Gov. Kashim Shettima disclosed this in Maiduguri at the inauguration of the 2017 Nigerian Medical Doctors’ Week.
Represented by the Deputy Governor, Mr Usman Durkwa, the governor said that the decision was to address manpower needs in the state’s health sector.
Shettima said that there were 4, 800 health workers in the state consisting of 158 doctors, 1, 094 nurses and midwives and 29 laboratory scientists.
He said that the medical personnel included 150 laboratory technicians, 250 community health attendants and 12 pharmacists.
‘‘We awarded scholarship to students studying different health professional fields, while 60 female medical students are sponsored for MBBS courses.”
Shettima said the state government spent about N4 billion on rehabilitation of hospitals destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents.
He said that part of the money was used to buy hospital equipment provided to some reconstructed clinics.
According to him, the state government had paid its counterpart contributions to health projects and had adopted modalities to fast track upgrading of the three healthcare training institutions.
The NMA Chairman, Dr Babashehu Muhammad, said that the association lined up activities to celebrate the association’s week with a view to improving immunisation coverage.
He expressed disappointment that the 2016/2017 National Immunisation Coverage Survey (NICS) indicated that only 33 per cent of child coverage were recorded as against the global target of 90 per cent.
“Only 23 per cent of children are fully immunised, while about 40 per cent of them do not receive vaccination.
‘‘This showed that a larger population of under-5 children are unprotected, they risk dying from vaccine preventable diseases; this scaring statistic is unacceptable to the Nigerian Doctors.”
Muhammad stressed the need for community engagement on routine immunisation to mobilise participation in the exercise.
