The Honourable Minister of State for Health, Senator Dr. Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora has stated that the Federal Government has commenced a general training on Oxygen Equipment Utilization.
He made this statement at the occasion of the 2019 Health Week of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Keffi, Nasarawa State, which was tagged, “Oxygen is essential to life”.
The Minister of State reiterated that, “the 60th National Council of Health (NCH) 2017 had earlier approved and launched the National Policy on Oxygen, National Strategic Oxygen Scale up-Plan, Clinical guidelines on Oxygen Utilization as well as the Revised Essential Equipment list which now includes Oxygen”. He stated further that, “the Ministry has commenced this regional training to ensure that only quality medical oxygen is delivered to patients in order to tackle the avoidable mortality associated with oxygen lack, poor quality, or inappropriate delivery”.
Following a tour of the facilities on ground at the FMC during the event, the Minister of State observed that participants at the event have so much to benefit in the areas of attitudinal change, health awareness, improved health-seeking behaviours as well as availability and accessibility to health services.
He recommended the activities showcased at the Centre to other Federal Tertiary Hospitals in the peer group for implementation in order to enhance service uptake with Government programmes like the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) as enshrined in the National Health Act, 2014.
Earlier, the Medical Director/Chief Executive of the FMC Keffi, Dr Yahaya Adamu explained to the Minister of State that due to his desire and vision for critical medical care, the Management of the Centre decided to undertake the task of reactivation and upgrade of the existing oxygen plant in the Centre which had been broken down and out of use for the past 5 years. That same plant he said, is now functional and serving not just the needs of the hospital but also other hospitals in and around the domain of the FMC, Keffi. He also informed the Minister of State that the Nasarawa State Government has offered the Centre a large parcel of land for its permanent site on the Keffi-Abuja Highway. To this end he solicited for financial assistance towards the development of the proposed site so as to meet with the vision and mission of establishing the College of Medicine and Allied Medical Sciences in conjunction with Nasarawa State University.
The Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule represented by his Deputy Emmanuel Akabe commended the Management of the Centre for this laudable initiative which he observed will enhance professionalism as well as provide solutions to the critical challenges affecting the Health Sector in Nigeria.
Also present at the occasion was the Chairman, Governing Board of the Centre, Sule-Iko Sadeeq.
Eunice Akro
AD Press/Publicity
