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121 Primary Healthcare Centres Now Fully Rehabilitated in Borno State, Says Commissioner
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Borno State Government said that it has so far rehabilitated a total of 121 Primary Healthcare Centres out of the 312 health facilities damaged as a result of the insurgency war in the North East.
The state also said that it has approved the disbursement of N209 million as part it’s counterpart funding to the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) meant to renovate and maintain the operations of Primary Healthcare Centres in the state.
Presently, only about 8,000 primary healthcare centres are in good functional state in the country.
However, the administration of President Bola Tinubu had set a target of helping to revive 17,000 Primary Healthcare Centres out of the over 34,000 dilapidated facilities across the states before 2027 as part of its Renewed Hope Health Agenda.
Speaking in an interview with THISDAY, the Borno State Commissioner of Health, Prof. Baba Mallam Gana, said that the government has been able to renovate 121 Primary health facilities in the state
In addition, he said that the state governor has further upgraded facilities in 100 primary health centres to ensure improved access to hospital care for the people of the state.
According to Prof. Gana, over 45 percent of the healthcare facilities lost in Borno State were destroyed due to insurgency war in the state.
While highlighting the impact of the insurgency war on state’s health facilities, the commissioner, said: “We have 312 Wards in Borno State and until the advent of insurgency in 2009, we had 312 functional primary healthcare centres.
“But with the insurgency, we lost over 45 percent of these health facilities which is nearly half of the total number. Some were completely burnt; others were looted by the invading terrorists.
“So as of the moment we have 121 functioning primary healthcare centres in the state. However, the state government has recently renovated and upgraded nearly 100 primary healthcare centres. So, we are getting there, in terms of development of primary healthcare centres”, he said.
Regarding utilization of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund being funded from the one percent of the revenue from the federation account, the commissioner, said that the state has been up to date in accessing the fund meant to revive primary health centres.
He said that Governor Babagana Zulum last Monday formally presented cheques for the BHCPF counterpart funding to the management of the State Primary Healthcare Board and the Borno state Contributory Health Insurance Agency.
His words: “This was meant to be disbursed to 170 Primary Healthcare Centres in the state. This will go a long way to help advance healthcare delivery in Borno.
“The fund was presented in the presence of the 27 Local Government Council chairmen. The amount of the counterpart fund contributed by the state is N209, 819, 306.
“The amount covers the BHCPF counterpart fund requirements for the Primary Healthcare Centres and the health insurance scheme. This highlights the fact that the state government is focused on improving the primary healthcare services in the state because once you are able improve the primary healthcare services, you will be able to meet the target of universal health coverage.”
On the issue of child malnutrition Gana said the state governor has been doing everything possible to address it.
For example, he said the government is providing free maternal services to all pregnant women in the state.
“This means that all the drugs that the pregnant woman needs will be given to her free of charge in addition, if a woman is malnourished during pregnancy and is noticed, she will be given treatment and she will not pay anything for it. Also nursing mothers are provided with nutrition supplements to protect them their children from suffering malnutrition.
“For those who are in the IDP Camps in the state, malnutrition treatment is also provided to both women and their children, especially pregnant and lactating women who are regarded as vulnerable,” he said.
The commissioner thanked one of the partners, the UNICEF which he said are the forefront of the effort to ensure that mother and child do not suffer malnutrition in the state.
According to him, both UNICEF and the state government are providing counterpart funding to implement malnutrition services in the state. He said that the counterpart fund is domiciled in health ministry for easy disbursement to address the health challenges.
