Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa says his administration has built six cottage hospitals, with more than 40 primary health care (PHC) facilities also remodeled and renovated in the state.
The governor made this known at the “Adamawa Physicians’ Week 2022,” organised by Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Yola on Tuesday.
The theme of the event was: “Nigeria’s Healthcare Delivery System and 2023 Democratic Transition: A Time to Change the Narrative.”
Fintiri, who was represented by the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Abdullahi Isa, said that the medical equipment for the facilities had already started arriving from the United States of America.
According to him, his interest in healthcare delivery has also encouraged some partners to do more for the state.
NMA Chairman in the state, Dr Solomon Bulus, lauded the government for the infrastructural development recorded in the state and called for more, especially in the area of health workers’ welfare.
He decried the shortage of manpower and the challenges being faced by health workers in the country generally, adding: “doctors are being underpaid, overworked and targeted by kidnappers.”
Bulus called for the review of doctors’ salary structure, which, he said, had been overdue since 2014.
He also urged Nigerians to intervene over the review of the new salary structure in order to improve the welfare of health workers.
Speaking, Dr Hayatu Ahmad, a Consultant Peadiatrician at Federal Medical Centre, Azare, Bauchi State, decried the challenges of manpower in the health sector.
He particularly cited a state with seven general hospitals but without medical doctors to provide the needed services.
Ahmad, who stated that World Health Organisation (WHO) had recommended one doctor to 1,000 patients, urged governments at all levels to do the needful in order to salvage the situation.