United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has handed over a primary health care centre (PHC) to the government of Bauchi State, northeast Nigeria.
The Yalwan Duguri Primary Health Care Centre in Alkaleri local government area was handed over to the state government on 15 February, 2021.
UNICEF Chief in the state, Bahnu Pathak, said the UN agency had also supplied basic medical equipment to all the 323 PHCs across Bauchi.
According to a 2017 report by Health Finance and Governance, titled, Bauchi State Health Profile, for every 1,000 live births across the state, 41 neonatal deaths, 81 infant deaths, 161 under-five deaths are being recorded annually.
In a related response, UNICEF, according to Pathak, is working closely with the Ministry of Health and the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency to provide quality health services to the citizens of the state.
He said the Yalwan Duguri PHC was one of the centres of excellence.
‘We have done our part; so now, I will like to request from the local authorities in charge of this facility and members of staff working here with support and guidance from our chairperson in this local government, to maintain operations services of this facility’, he said.
‘It is not enough to build a house, it has to be maintained. This is the responsibility of the local authorities here.
‘UNICEF will always be there to support all the necessary supplies, capacity building, and we will work with the team, but the main responsibility of operations and maintenance is your duty’.
Pathak added that UNICEF was working in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Aliko Dangote Foundation to support the state in actualising its plan for proving quality health care services to the citizens of the state.
For his part, Chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Rilwanu Mohammed, represented by a director in the agency, Bello Mustapha, said the government is determined to address infrastructural decay in the state.
UNICEF had in 2020 said it provided primary health care services to 2,627,536 conflict-affected people in Nigeria.
Source: ThisDay
Photo source: UNICEF
