By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
The Jigawa state government has said that it is taking steps towards ending medical tourism by its citizens and residents through the provision of the state-of-the-art equipment to all the government-owned medical facilities across the state.
Governor Umar Namadi gave the the assurance while performing the foundation-stone laying for the construction of the Ultramodern Diagnostic Centre, Cardiac Centre and a Cryo-Oxygen Plants at Fanisau community in Dutse local government.
He said the establishment of the multi-billion naira Ultramodern Diagnostic and Cardiac Centres together with a Cryo-Oxygen plant here in Dutse is in line with the state government’s strategic long-term vision for the health sector in the state.
“These investments represent a significant paradigm shift in health care programming. Even though all the initial investments for these three projects would be through direct treasury funding, ultimately the plan is for these to be run based on a model of public-private-partnership, (PPP) arrangement with certified Health Investment Firms.
“While ensuring managerial efficiency and effectiveness, this will also guarantee long-term viability of the Investments with significant rate of returns.
“Further to this, while providing specialized and advanced health infrastructure that would contribute to our quest for long-term health security, these investments also have the potentials of expanding the fiscal space for sustainable healthcare financing in our State.
“With these services at our doorstep, the era of going to other States for Mammography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scan, and many other specialized diagnostic health services will be over In Shaa Allah.
“We firmly believe, these Centres will provide these services very effectively to the people in Jigawa state and beyond. Indeed, our vision is to create a new hub for health tourism in Dutse, the Capital City of Jigawa state.
“The Cryo-Oxygen centre will not only provide 100% pure liquid medical oxygen for patients’ needs but is also designed to produce nitrogen at commercial quantity, thereby creating another value chain for fertilizer companies in Nigeria.
“In addition, the Biomass by-Products from the Plant has the potential for providing green energy for the use in the Center.
“Also, by design, the oxygen will be branded in specialized cylinders that are optimized with digital gauge and transported to all areas of need using electric vehicles to save cost of transaction.
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“All these are to ensure that all necessary staff needed for the revitalized and expanded primary and secondary health facilities are provided for them to function
effectively.
“I strongly believe the whole of these interventions are strategic and would go along way in delivering our commitments to the people of Jigawa’s state as per as the health sector is concerned.”
He appealed to all categories of health workers, including the clinical and non-clinical staff, whether permanent or ad-hoc, to take their work very very serious.
Even as government is doing its best to ensure adequate remunerations for health staff, you all must be ready to reciprocate and take the extra mile to make sacrifices.
“Your work is service to humanity. I make this appeal knowing that we are still getting periodic reports of laxity in the management of some of our healthcare facilities.This we would not condone. Service delivery must be effective. The Hospital Environment must be neat and orderly. Relation with patients must be courteous.
“Personnel must report to work promptly and remain on duty as required. I have already directed the health monitors that were appointed across the State to promptly report – with concrete evidence any observed laxity in service provision – and we will treat this as non performance and take appropriate action accordingly.
The governor warned the contractors handling to work and deliver the projects within the specified periods agreed I’m the agreements noting that, the government would not accept request for variation as a result of the delays in their parts.
His words, “We will not accept any unwarranted cost overruns due to non-adherence to project schedules as per your Gann-chart which provides specific milestones in the execution of the contracts.
“Our appointed project consultants, the Due Process and Project Monitoring Bureau as well as the implementing Agency must remain vigilant to ensure that these projects are effectively delivered in accordance with the signed contract agreements”
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