The Sokoto State Government has confirmed the employment of additional 845 nurses and midwives to facilitate access to improve quality health care services delivery across the primary health centres.

The economic adviser to the Sokoto governor, Bashir Achida, said this during an interview in Abuja on Friday.

Mr Achida said the recruitment became necessary given the need to address the medical personnel gap in Sokoto. He said the Sokoto government was determined to address healthcare challenges such as maternal and infant mortality rates and vesicovaginal fistula (VVF).

“At the moment, I don’t think that there is any state in this country that has employed 845 nurses and midwives in one year for its primary health care centres”, he stated.

He said plans had also been concluded to absorb medical doctors graduating from medical institutions and other universities into state health facilities.

According to him, the doctors as interns would also be absorbed by the state government to reduce doctor-patient gap in the state.

He said seven primary healthcare facilities had been renovated and had been put to use by the state government.

Mr Achida said Governor Ahmad Aliyu had also conceived plans to build an additional 199 other primary health care centres, saying the government was working to deliver on it.

He stated, “We have 23 general hospitals today, but now we have got approval to build more health care facilities in addition to a hospital for VVF health care services.”

(NAN)