The Medical Director of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Kware, Sokoto State, Professor Shehu Sale, says hospital renders specialized services that are cheaper, patient-friendly and affordable to citizens.

The Hospital’s Medical Director, Professor Sale, stated this in an interview with the newsmen in Sokoto.

Sale, a Consultant Psychiatrist promised to remain steadfast in determination to always provide affordable and excellent services to patients.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari and Ministers of Health for their support and encouragement to hospital management that ensured Hospital facelift as well as all round upgrades in the facility.

The Medical Director said the hospital currently hosts a total of 17 visiting consultants, who are specialists in different medical fields.

He noted that there are also resident doctors and other health professionals such as pharmacist, nurses, clinical psychologist, occupational therapists, laboratory scientists that are working together as a team to provide efficient services.

“The hospital has world-class equipment such as mobile digital x-ray machine, mobile ultrasound machine, ultrasonography machine, digitalised medical and diagnostic records system, occupational therapy equipment and modern laboratory tools,” Professor Sale revealed.

He disclosed that the federal government had also funded new major projects in its COVID-19 interventions at the hospital.

These, included construction and equipping of intensive care unit, construction and equipping of molecular laboratory, construction and equipping of isolation centre and procurement of Personal Protective Equipment.

He said the completed projects were already impacting positively on service delivery and protection of both staff and patients of the hospital.

According to him, the projects will also deliver improved healthcare to the hard-to-reach communities, in line with the government’s commitment to provide essential healthcare services.

Sale noted that total bed space and staff strength had been increased, while the restoration of full accreditation status to the Post-Basic Psychiatric Nursing School at the hospital had been done.

He said patients feeding system, laundry, drugs administration, sanitation of hospital environment has been ensured to best standards while workers welfare was prioritized as accorded by unions.

He explained that the hospital provided integrated healthcare services to the people through digitalized finance and administrative record system, along with a steady solar-powered and conventional electricity supply.

He added that federal government had awarded another contract for the construction of the Regional Women and Children Drug Dependence Treatment Centre in the hospital, which would cater for diverse health needs of the vulnerable sub-population.

He added that the centre, along with the established family health clinic would address the negative perception of people with regards to mental health issues and reduce stigma, associated with hospital services.

On hospital transformations, the Medical Director explained that rates of hospital services have been readjusted to complement the advancements in the society in terms of consumables, reagents and other situational changes which affected individuals and organisations globally.

He noted that management has automated hospital services in line with global best practices from centralized payment system, medical diagnostics, Doctors’ consultations and overall medical records.

According to him, the progress made so far in the hospital, especially in terms of upgrading existing facilities and consolidation of skilled manpower development were all facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Health which is the mother supervising ministry.

“Recently the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has supported the hospital with patients’ rehabilitation and empowerment equipment.

”The gesture was aimed at promoting a public health approach toward addressing substance use disorders by providing equipment and services that would enhance treatment and recovery of people with substance use disorders.

”It was based on guided reports of the 2019 ECOWAS Empirical Survey on Substance Use Treatment in member states and the National Drug Use Survey conducted,” he added.

The Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has approved the employment of 440 skilled health workers to be deployed to the various primary health care facilities across the State.

According to a statement signed by the Chairman, Committee for Human Resource for Health Recruitment, Dr. James B. Madi, on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Abdulrahman Shuaibu, said, the move was in line with the health sector reforms plan of 2019 to 2023 of the Governor Yahaya-led administration.

“The recruitment was informed by the resolve to address the chronic shortage of skilled health workers needed to provide the basic minimum package of health services, especially at the primary level.

“Consequently, the Primary Health Care Development Agency, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization, is calling on suitably qualified health workers to apply following the laid-down criteria.

“The criteria are that an applicant must be a registered and licensed Midwife, a member of the Community Health Extension Workers and the Junior Community Health Extension Workers and that the applicant must possess a current and valid practicing license and must be willing to work in any part of the State,” the statement said.

The statement said all interested applicants should forward their applications with attached photocopies of all relevant credentials, valid email, and telephone numbers to be addressed and submitted to the Executive Secretary, Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, at Number 3, Yaya Arabi Close, GRA Gombe, Gombe State.

It also stated that all applications should be submitted to the office of the Executive Secretary from July 13 to July 26, 2022.