The Yobe Government on Friday says it is targeting 70,000 persons in
2022 under its Expanded Free Healthcare Service Scheme.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Mohammad Gana, told journalists in Damaturu on the sideline of an orientation exercise for service providers.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the scheme aims to harmonise free healthcare programmes,
including the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), Free Drugs Programme and Equity Sector.
Gana said about 50,000 poor and vulnerable persons were so far benefiting from all the programmes at primary,
secondary and tertiary healthcare centres in the state.
He added that harmonising the programmes would boost efficiency and cut waste of resources.
He explained that “the expanded scheme is essentially about bringing all our free healthcare services under one umbrella.
“We are doing this to avoid duplication, waste of resources, and also ensuring that the right population are benefitting from the
right programmes.”
Gana also said that “the state government pays 3.25 per cent of the medical bills of every civil servant under its Formal Sector
Contributory Programme which started in 2020.”
On monitoring and evaluation, he said the state was doing its best to minimise challenges.
He added that complaint about not receiving some consumable items was not because the items were not provided, but
because the quantity supplied had reduced.
“And this is as a result of inflation and rising cost of the dollar, which, of course, affects the drugs market. For instance,
intravenous fluid that we used to buy at between N50 and N60 in 2014, now costs over N300.
“However, we are doing our best to improve the system; that is why monitoring and evaluation is an integral component
of the scheme,” the commissioner said. (NAN)
