Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, on Friday, lamented the health care system in the State.
According to him, the conditions and standards of hospitals have deteriorated over the years.
He disclosed that the 32 General Hospitals across the State have not been renovated in the last 20 years which has forced citizens to travel to neighbouring states for medical care.
While addressing stakeholders from the 23 Local Government Areas of the State in Kaduna, he said although most of the hospitals were in deplorable state, his administration had planned to remodel, reconstruct and re-equip six of the General hospitals, two in each of the three senatorial zones of the state, in the first phase.
His words: “One of major areas of focus of our government, is the healthcare. In the last one month, I have received reports from our Deputy Governor, who is one of the most prominent, established public health specialists in Nigeria, that most of our 32 general hospitals in Kaduna as we speak, are not functional.
“Because of that, most of the patients from Kaduna have to travel to some neighboring states for medical attention. This is unacceptable. And that is why we have decided to remodel, reconstruct at least six the 32 general hospitals. This project will be starting by the grace of God on Monday, that is in the next few days.
“These general hospitals that we are remodeling and reconstructing are; General Hospital Rigasa, General Hospital Maigana, General Hospital Gwantu, General Hospital Kafanchan, General Hospital Giwa and General Hospital Ikara.
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“The reason we believe we have to invest in the healthcare, particularly at the secondary healthcare level is simply because most of these hospitals I mentioned have not been given attention in the last 20 years, and that is the reason they in their current situation”
Sani added that efforts were underway to complete abandoned road construction to ensure smooth vehicular activities in the state, especially in rural areas.
“We have also started attracting other support from development partners, the German embassy is also supporting us, African Development Bank is supporting us and the office of the Vice President only three weeks ago, intervened to support our ginger farmers who lost a lot of produce because of the epidemic that destroyed most of their farms.
“We are also partnering with other development partners to enhance agriculture value chains and support our farmers, so that they can have access to credit. Close to that, we made it clear at the inception of administration that, we would focusing on rural revitalization, that is because we believe we must construct roads in our rural communities, so that our farmers can take their produce from the farms to the market,” he said.
