Health
The coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, has said that over five million Nigerian children have been vaccinated against Diptheria using the Pentavalent vaccine.
Pate said this during the ministerial sectorial briefing on Friday in Abuja while reeling out the achievements of the ministry in the last one year.
According to him, more than 10 million Nigerian children received the tetanus and diphtheria vaccines.
“We are working hard to stop the circulating variant polio viruses showing up in Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi States.
“We have delivered measles vaccines to more than 5 million children to protect them against measles, and 4.95 million girls 9-14 years in 15 States have received HPV vaccines to protect them against cervical cancer, representing 80% target, among the highest in the world.
“6 million more are planned to receive the vaccines in the next phase for 21 states starting from May 27, 2024,” Pate said.
The minister said that in the area of hospital equipment and infrastructure, the federal hospitals have successfully executed 201 specific infrastructure projects in the last 1 year.
He said that additionally, 179 specific pieces of important medical equipment were procured by the federal government and distributed across the six geopolitical zones.
“In 33 of our federal tertiary hospitals, approximately 4.5 million Nigerians accessed outpatient health services, and 1.6 million had inpatient admissions. Showing that Nigerians are using the services provided by the Federal Government in those facilities, supported by an amazing army of health professionals.
“We are witnessing substantial upgrade in healthcare infrastructure, a testament to the President’s leadership.”
Pate explained that plans were underway for the groundbreaking ceremony of 10 healthcare infrastructure projects, through the NSIA, across the six geopolitical zones, including diagnostic centers and oncology centers.
He noted that these developments were part of a broader initiative involving Public-Private Partnerships.
“We are moving forward with a major PPP to get to the full business case stage for expanding infrastructure and equipping 6 teaching hospitals.
“ Addressing the critical issue of the health workforce, we have doubled the intake capacity of our educational institutions. Enrollment quotas for medical schools, nursing schools, and other health professional training institutions have increased significantly from 28,000 to 64,000 annually.
“Now the hard work of getting educational institutions to enhance infrastructure, teaching materials to ensure quality is not eroded by expanding the quantity.
“ This is necessary given the shortage of health workforce. We have also approved a managed migration policy for health and are looking at how best to address the excessive workload of medical providers, especially the medical doctors.”
The minister said that in the last 7 months more than 100 young medical graduates secured residency positions in the US and we issued the certificates of need for them to be trained and return home, and changed the policy to include domestic as well as internationally trained medical graduates.
“We are working with Ministry of Labor as well as Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission to address long standing legacy issues of compensation and allowances which will take time and more patience from health workers,” Pate said.
F.A
May 25, 2024
