Commissioning of General Hospital Zango

Assalamu Alaikum, warahamatullah. I stand before you with a deep sense of gratitude to Almighty Allah for making it possible for us to commission the newly established General Hospital, Zango. It is the first time in the history of Zango to have a secondary healthcare facility in the form of full-fledged General Hospital Zango. The hospital was established by our administration after successful upgrade of the existing Comprehensive Healthcare Centre (CHC Zango) at the total cost of 1,949,911,223.10.

The hospital has been equipped for prompt and accurate diagnosis of diseases, management of medical and surgical conditions as well as treatment of those advanced diseases that were hitherto been referred to other neighboring secondary and tertiary health facilities. The whole idea was to significantly reduce the time delay in patients’ care which will in turn reduce the patients’ suffering, improve survival and wellbeing of people in the local government and its neighboring communities.

At this juncture, it is important to mention that provision of standard, accessible and affordable healthcare closer to the people has been among the top priorities of our administration. Over the last 3 years, we have made efforts in transforming all components of healthcare system in the state as follows:

• Completion of the upgrade of four (4) primary health centers (PHC) of Kafur, Charanchi, Zango, and Dandume to the status of general hospitals.
• The upgrade of PHCs Mai’adua and Faskari to full-fledged General Hospitals is near completion.
• Re-establishment and construction work of General Hospital Daura is currently ongoing.
• General renovation and upgrade of General Hospitals Kankara and Mani are ongoing.
• Renovation and upgrade of operation theaters at GARSH, TUYMCH and General Hospital Katsina with latest modern designs and facilities have been completed.
• Constructed a 16-bed modern dialysis center one of its kind in the whole North-Western Nigeria. The center is currently rendering efficient services to the patients with kidney failure within and outside the state.
• Construction of new ultra-modern ophthalmology division that will serve as reference eye center at GARSH.
• Renovation and revitalization of more than 280 CHC’s and PHC’S across the state.
• The State Government has also embarked on the provision of 24/7 power supply by solarization of the General and specialist’s hospitals in the state. The work has been completed at the General Hospital Katsina, Kankia and currently ongoing at General Hospital Charanchi.
• For the first time in the history of the state, a center for manufacturing pharmaceutical drugs and consumables is being established and is about to be completed.
• Eight hundred and four (804) healthcare personnel have been recruited over the last 3 years.

For the first time in the history, of the state, postgraduate medical residency training has been commenced in 6 departments of the 3 specialist hospitals of General Hospital Katsina, Turai Umar Musa Yar’adua maternal and children hospital Katsina (TUYMCH) and General Amadi Rimi Specialist hospital Katsina (GARSH). This follows successful repairs, reconstruction, purchase of basic equipment, registration and hosting of the accreditation teams from the postgraduate medical colleges. The departments approved for the PG training are as follows;

• Pediatrics
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• General Surgery
• Radiology Department

This new development happened within 3 years of our administration. The state will now be able to train and produce medical consultants in the above departments within the state-owned specialists’ hospitals. The new development will ensure the delivery and sustenance of standard healthcare services to the good people of the state and beyond.

We also granted approval and release of funds for the accreditation of dental therapy units of the 5 pilot hospitals of General Hospitals Katsina, Kankia, Malumfashi, Dutsinma and Funtua, for the first time in the history of the state. This will allow for the professional internship training in dental therapy.

From the inception of this administration to date, the state government has paid a total sum of N1,279,085,353.43 for medical students mostly studying across Nigerian Universities and few universities abroad, which include scholarship for MBBS programme in Egypt granted to 41 medical students, with an average of one student per local government. The students are currently in their third year of study. While, the second batch of students got sponsorship to study MBBS in Ethiopia. And third batch of foreign trained medical students are currently being recruited for MBBS at Russia.

We wish to urge the good people of Zango Local Government Area and the neighboring communities to support government initiatives and protect the hospital as well as cooperate with its staff in order to ensure sustained provision of standard healthcare services.

Finally, I commend the efforts of all the stakeholders who worked tirelessly to ensure this project met the required standard and completed in time. Thank you all, wassalamu alaikum.