By Bala Ajiya
DAMATURU-Being an agrarian state where most of the people are peasants and live through subsistence means, the people of Yobe have before this administration, been struggling to cope with the high cost of health care services.

Like in most tropical regions where people are vulnerable to several communicable and non-communicable diseases, the people of Yobe have before now been battling with the solution to their various health problems.

Noting the hardships most of these peasants past through in tackling their health care needs, the present administration under Governor Ibrahim Gaidam introduced several health programmes that brought lots of relief to the people.

First of all, the governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam introduced the free drug programme which touches the lives of the entire people of the state. This policy caters for free medication to pregnant women and children between the ages of five as well as accident victims.

Pregnant women from day one are being taken care of health wise as they can go into any hospital in the state to collect medicine based on doctor’s prescription and walk away without paying any thing. This is also applicable to children between the ages of 0-5 years as well as accident victims in the state.

Secondly, the current administration equally embarked on rehabilitation of existing hospitals across the state to bring back the lost glory of quality in the existing hospitals. The programme started with award of contract for the rehabilitation of the Buni-Yadi hospital, that of Damaturu, the state capital as well as the one in Damagum, the Fune local government headquarters.

Rehabilitation works are still on-going as the hospitals have equally been provided with ambulances, among many other state of the art equipments. The Damaturu hospital has in addition been provided with access road within residential and clinical areas thereby improving the quality of infrastructures within the hospital.

Apart from the renovation works, the governor has on several occasions assured that the  hospitals upon completion will be equipped while qualified doctors, nurses and other health workers will be deployed to help improve the health needs of the people.

Health policy makers in the state say the renovation of hospitals across the state is a continuous exercise as more hospitals will be renovated in the second phase. Hospitals that need urgent attention include; the Jakusko hospital, Machina, Geidam and Bursari hospitals among others.

In addition to the on-going renovation , government has also awarded contract for the construction of 200 bed capacity hospital in Damaturu, the state capital. The decision for this project according to the governor was to provide an additional hospital in the state capital which previously has just a hospital and a maternity hospital and the growing population was making access to healthcare facilities difficult for the people. One other area the government ventured into was the establishment of a primary healthcare agency as a parastatal under the state Ministry of Health.

The state House of Assembly after severe legislation created this agency with the aim of bringing primary health closer to the people. With this development, health experts say it will attract foreign organisations into assisting in developing or improving the quality of health of the people.

On the whole, the state of health institutions and infrastructure in Yobe over the years was pathetic but the situation has improved tremendously under  the present administration.