Health sector: How Tinubu is transforming Nigeria — Ali Pate

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate has said President Bola Tinubu is working towards transforming the country’s health sector for better and quality healthcare service delivery.

Pate said this during the ground-breaking ceremony of 10 Medserve’s oncology and diagnostic centres at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Friday in Bauchi.

According to him, the president is investing so much in the health sector to ensure every Nigerian has access to quality healthcare service delivery across the country.

He also said that Tinubu had undertaken the retraining of 120,000 frontline health workers, adding that 10,000 of them had been retrained across the country including in Bauchi.

“Mr President is very clear, he wants to transform this country. He wants to change the direction of this country, and we are fortunate that he picked health as one of those areas. In just one year, he has done what has not been done in the history of this country in the health sector.

“He has launched many initiatives and building on what Medserve has done. We are seeing 10 major infrastructural projects with the groundbreaking that is happening. In 12 months, we will start opening them all across Nigeria.

“There are 6,000 centres that Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority(NSIA), is doing, and I think the money is available and those too would be completed within 12 to 18 months, they will be opened,” he said.

Also speaking, Dr Tolulope Adewole, Managing Director, Medserve, said between 2020 and now, Medserve had attended to 131,000 patients in NSIA Kano diagnostic centre with evidential testimonies.

He explained that close to 700,000 individual tests had been done in Medserve’s diagnostic centres, adding that centres would be created in Umuahia and Abia,

“As we hope to inaugurate this one in Bauchi, in another 12 to 15 months, this project’s doors would never be closed and that the patients of Bauchi would join that number, and they would have a testimonial of what is going to happen.

“We have just three things that we do, equity, access and quality, and our goal is to demonstrate equitable access. All lives are equal and the same quality service you get in other places would be getting here,” he said.

In his address, Bauchi governor, Bala Mohammed, said that his administration would soon expend N25 billion on the state Specialist Hospital to complement the medical services at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital.

He appreciated Tinubu for deepening inclusion and thank him for capturing Bauchi in his Renewed Hope Agenda.

“We want poverty and anger to go and this kind of initiative is also reducing anger. On behalf of myself and indeed all the governors in the various states of the federation where this programme is coming, we are happy with the Federal Government,” he said.