Gombe government constructs three special hospitals in eight years

The Gombe State Government has constructed and equipped three specialised hospitals within eight years, Dr Kennedy Ishaya, the state Commissioner for Health, has said.

Ishaya disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Gombe while giving account of his stewardship.

He said the government constructed a 150-bed capacity hospital for Pregnant Women and Children and equipped same with three Theatres, Dental Clinic and Nutrition Unit, among other facilities.

According to him, the hospital is the first of its kind in the entire North East sub-region of the country.

He said the decision to construct the hospital was informed by the poor indices of Maternal and Child Health in the region as well as the state.

“The nutrition clinic in the hospital will take care of the problem of malnutrition in the state which is on the increase, as a result of the influx of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs),’’ he said.

The commissioner said that the government also constructed a 150- bed capacity Snakebite and Treatment Hospital at Kaltungo, which is the first of its kind in the entire West Africa.

He said the hospital, which is serving people from Gombe and outside the state, is equipped with facilities including a dental section, eye section and maternity ward.

“This is because a person bitten by snake may likely develop complications which will affect the eye and mouth and the eye and dental section will take care of that,’’ he explained.

According to him, the hospital is not only meant for snake bites but also for bites from spider, scorpion and other insects which are poisonous.

“Also, an Infectious Diseases Hospital at Zambuk for the treatment of Tuberculosis was constructed and equipped with Gene expert machine for the detection of any form of tuberculosis as well as equipped with X-ray machines,’’ he added.

Ishaya recalled that there were only 23 delivery beds at the specialist hospital in Gombe when he assumed office in 2011, “and this was grossly inadequate”.

“The maternity ward was expanded and 17 additional delivery beds were provided, giving the total of 39 beds.

“Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Dialysis centre of six cubicles were also constructed, and we have placed order for the dialysis machines.

“We constructed the dialysis centre because we have observed that the incident of kidney failure is becoming unbearable in Gombe.’’

He said prior to the construction of the ICU unit, patients were being referred to the Federal Teaching Hospital.

Ishaya said that in the area of human resource for health, the ministry had re-engaged the service of nurses who were retired but still interested in working.

“And the ministry has upgraded the School of Nursing and Midwifery to College of Nursing and Midwifery to increase student enrolment.

“When I came to office in 2011, there were only 177 nurses and midwives in the state who were expected to man the 23 health facilities across the state.

“This was because nurses were retiring every day and the School of Nursing and Midwifery was only graduating 30 nurses and midwives annually because there was no full accreditation.

“But now, the story has changed because the school was upgraded and is graduating good number of nurses and midwives annually,’’ he said.

The commissioner added that the School of Health Technology was also upgraded to a College of Science and Health Technology.

According to him, before the school was upgraded, the institution offered only one course on Environmental Health but now it has introduced four additional courses with full accreditation.