The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said that the Zamfara State Government employed only 22 doctors across the 24 primary health care centres in the state.

Adewole said this at the inauguration of the National Task Force on Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Nigeria in Abuja on Wednesday.

The minister, however, said the Federal Medical Centre in Zamfara had about 120 doctors.

He said he had instructed the doctors at the FMC that although the centre is a tertiary institution, they must undertake primary health care duties due to the shortage of personnel.

Adewole said, “Zamfara has 22 doctors for their 24 PHCs, but at the FMC, there are over 120 doctors. And I told them, you can’t be working here as if you are an island. We cannot be paying 120 doctors in FMC in Zamfara and the state needs doctors. Things must change. People can’t just be there and we will be paying them heavily for doing nothing.”

Adewole lamented the high level of maternal mortality rate in Nigeria, which stands at 576 deaths per 100,000 live births – one of the highest in the world.

He said incentives should be given to pregnant women particularly in rural areas to make them visit health care centres frequently.

The minister added, “What has worked in Ondo, Adamawa and Nasarawa is conditional cash transfer. So how can we use this to implement ante-natal coverage, delivery and post-natal as well as immunisation?

“Each time you come to the clinic, we give you a N1,000 and we say two visits. WHO says four, but I think two is enough. On the day that you are delivered of the baby, we give you N2,000 as transport fare and when you come for post-natal immunisation, you get another N1,000.So you get N5,000 in all.

“That should cost us about N40bn. I believe this country can afford it so that no woman will die. So we need to look for ingenious ways to bring them to the facilities. In Kebbi, the complaint was that when they gave birth, the women always demand for hot pap. Why can’t we give them at the hospital? We can give them what they want at home. So we need to look at what is keeping our women away from our facilities.”

Source: http://punchng.com/zamfara-has-only-22-state-doctors-says-minister/

cc dominique, Sissy3

Not surprised they have only 22 doctors for 24 Primary Health care Centers.
with the likes of Sani Yerima Ahmad and Yari as Governors