Kano State has concluded plans to provide functional primary healthcare centres in all 484 political wards, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said. Dr. Ganduje stated this when he received the Chairman, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Board of Directors, Mr. Emma Eneukwu at Government House, Kano.
Ganduje said the investments in primary healthcare centres in all wards of the state had become necessary to take off the pressure from tertiary healthcare centres.
“This vision is driven by our desire to alleviate the stress on tertiary health care facilities like Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. Presently the hospital’s capacity has been overstretched due to increasing number of patients; when you have functional primary health care centers, the burden will be less.
“We are also about to start the upgrade of hospitals in the four new Emirates to 400 – bed capacity, and when this is completed with standard equipment and health workers, it will minimize the need for patients coming to the city for medical attention,” Ganduje said.
He said the health sector was critical to his administration, and that huge resources were committed to completing the Muhammadu Buhari Specialist Hospital and the Isyaku Rabiu Pediatric Hospital to a state that they were currently ranked among the best public health facilities in the country.
Chairman, AKTH Board of Directors, Mr. Emma Eneukwu thanked the governor for constructing the hospital’s Community Medicine Complex and for appointing several personnel of the hospital into key government positions.
He appealed to the government to help in renovating the roads inside the hospital and to fix electricity cables that were damaged during construction of projects in the area.
By Desmond Mgboh,
The Sun