Buhari approves 3 new orthopedic hospitals

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the establishment of three more orthopedic hospitals in the country.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this on Wednesday at the official inauguration of the Primary Health Care (PHC) Leadership Challenge at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.

The event was organised by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) in partnership with development partners.

“The President has approved three more national orthopedic hospitals; one per geo-political zone.

“North-East has one; the North-Central has one and the South-South has one; in Benin, Jos and Jalingo respectively,” Ehanire said.

On his part, the Country Director, Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation, Jeremie Zoungrana, said that PHC Challenge fund represented a unique opportunity to motivate and publicly recognise ownership and leadership at the subnational level.

Zoungrana said the PHC health indicators would be tracked to support the NGF build Governor-level accountability, improve performance management, and enhance investments in critical areas of PHC.

“The challenge fund will also leverage other BMGF investments that focus on improving state-level data ownership, analysis, quality, and use,” he said.

The Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, who also spoke at the event, disclosed that a total sum of N471.9 billion has been disbursed by the Federal government as grant to states under the 1.5 billion dollars World Bank-Assisted States Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme.

Ahmed said it was gratifying to note that beyond benefitting from the grants, all the 36 states in the Federation had fully domesticated the fiscal reforms in their public financial management system.

In his speech, the NGF Chairman and Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, said the event buttressed the commitment of governors to building a resilient Primary Health Care System.

Fayemi said the Primary Health Care (PHC) Leadership Challenge aimed to address the bottlenecks in the system as it strove to build a robust public health care system.

He said: “As part of our enduring partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates and Aliko Dangote Foundations, we convened a roundtable on November 12 and November 13 in Seattle, USA, to reflect on the states’ government development agenda for immunisation, PHC, and human capital development.

“This culminated in the Seattle Declaration which restates the commitments of the NGF to strengthen leadership and accountability for the PHC system at the state level.”

According to him, evidence has shown that PHC has the potential to expand the attainment of Universal Health Coverage to as much as 80 per cent of the population.

“On our part, then agenda most Forum representing the 36 states of the Federation has taken up the challenge we have done in the past with polio eradication and we’re ready to do it again for primary health care system strengthening, especially given our recent experience with the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Fayemi, however, thanked the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Aliko Dangote Foundation, UNICEF, the Nigerian National Primary Health Care Development Agency, and the NGF Secretariat for putting together the challenge.

In the statement of declaration, Fayemi said following the induction to the Seattle Declaration by 36 governors of Nigeria in November 2019, the NGF affirmed its commitment to strengthen the primary health care system in the country.

The Star

Segun Ojo