Gov. Buni of Yobe flags off construction of Material, Newborn and Healthcare Complex; launches 28 Customised Tricycle Ambulances at Yobe State University Teaching Hospital (YSUTH) in Damaturu Today.
Yobe State Governor, H.E Mai Mala Buni says his Government is spending N5.7 Billion to Strenghten Primary Healthcare Across Yobe State.
Text of Speech Delivered by H.E Gov. Mai Mala Buni at the Foundation-Stone Laying Ceremony for the Construction of a Maternal, New-born and Child Healthcare Complex and the Launching of 28 Customised Tricycle Ambulances at Yobe State University Teaching Hospital (YSUTH) on Tuesday 14th January 2020
Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim. Wa Sallallahu Ala Nabiyul Karim
Protocols
As-Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah
It is fitting that we meet here today at the premises of our State University Teaching Hospital to lay the foundation stone for the construction of a Maternal, New-born and Child Healthcare Complex and to Launch 28 Customised Tricycle Ambulances.
This Teaching Hospital is the crown jewel of our healthcare system, a symbol of the significant progress that Yobe has made in providing accessible and affordable healthcare services to the people of the state.
As a government of Continuity, Consolidation and Innovation, we are determined to maintain and build on our progress in healthcare. It is a progress that is recognised and celebrated both here in the state and across the country. It was why the Federal Government and the World Bank recently approved a grant of 29 million US Dollars (or around N10.5 billion) to our state for emerging as the overall best among the 36 States of the federation in the implementation of the “Saving One Million Lives Programme”.
To make more progress in maternal and childcare and to improve the capacity of the State University Teaching Hospital to more effectively serve as a referral centre of excellence, we approved some funds for the construction of the Maternal, New-born and Child Health Complex for which we are gathered here at the cost of one billion, five hundred and eighty eight million, two hundred and fourty one thousand, five hundred and eighty three naira and thirty four kobo (N1,588,241,583.34). The objective is to strengthen maternal and childcare, thereby reducing the rates of maternal and child morbidity and mortality in the state.
Your Excellency, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, as part of our desire to keep healthcare as a priority of our administration, we are working to meet the requirements of the core clinical departments of the State University Teaching Hospital and to ensure the commencement of the Housemanship training programme. This will help meet the human resource gaps in the hospital and achieve the minimum benchmark for accreditation by regulatory bodies.
Going forward, we will engage the services of more medical consultants, medical officers, various levels of nursing staff and other health professionals, including medical laboratory scientists, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and radiographers, amongst others, to serve in the Teaching Hospital as senior level personnel.
We also plan to incentivise continuous professional development and provide other opportunities, such as staff housing, in order to continue to track and retain competent personnel working in the Teaching Hospital and the General Hospitals in the State.
Some of you here may recall that as part of our effort to meet and address the infrastructure gaps at Dr. Shehu Sule College of Nursing and Midwifery, another important healthcare institution in the state, I recently approved the construction of a one-storey, 200-bed capacity female hostel at the cost of N216 million. This was a fulfilment of a promise I made to the students during a recent visit to the College.
Along with our effort to fast track universal health coverage through the rehabilitation and standardization of 53 Primary Health Centres in the 17 local government areas of the state at the cost of N4.1 billion from the Saving One Million Lives funds, it shows that our commitment to a modern and functional healthcare system is grounded in our desire to make Yobe a healthier society.
As you are aware, this ceremony will also mark the distribution of 28 units of tricycle ambulances, procured at the sum of eighty four-million, four hundred and fifty five thousand, five hundred and six naira and eighty eight kobo (N84,455,506.88) to be used to ease transportation for expectant mothers in labour or in emergency situations as a means of reducing maternal, pre-natal and child morbidity and mortality that may follow the complications of pregnancy, labour and delivery.
In keeping with our commitment to revitalize the healthcare sector and make our citizens healthier and capable of contributing to the socio-economic development of the state, we will continue to ensure the provision of free maternal and child healthcare services, regular supply of drugs and consumables to our hospitals, and we will also ensure adequate human resource for health in the State.
Let me use this opportunity to commend the effort of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Ministry of Health and World Bank for the grant approved for our state as a recognition of our achievements in healthcare and the implementation of the Saving One Million Lives Programme. We are also thankful for the support we enjoy from the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, World Health Organisation; UNICEF; Department for International Development (DFID); Women for Health and the Society for Family Health.
We are also appreciative of the support from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Dangote Foundations, humanitarian agencies and other development partners.
I want to assure all our partners that we will continue to work with them to ensure the attainment of Universal Healthcare for all by the year 2030, In-sha Allah.
Let me conclude my remarks by saying that the requests made by the Honourable Commissioner of Health in his speech a short while ago for the recruitment of more healthcare personnel, equipping and furnishing of the Maternal and New-born Child Health complex, provision of medical laboratory and a lecture theatre for medical students and the extension of the owner-occupier housing scheme to medical doctors and other healthcare personnel are noted.
The requests will be attended to within the limits of our state’s budgetary provisions and existing government policies.
With these being said, I want to ask the contractor and supervising agencies for this Maternal, New-born and Child Healthcare Complex project to ensure compliance with specification and construction timelines. I also direct the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Management Board to ensure that monitoring mechanisms are put in place for the effective and efficient use of the customized tricycles ambulances.
It is now my honour to lay the foundation-stone for the construction of the Maternal, New-born and Child Health complex of the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital and also flag-off the distribution of the 28 customized tricycle ambulances.
Thank you so much.
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