By Ibraheem Musa
Kaduna
Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna state’s promise to ensure an efficient service delivery in the health sector is not just an empty slogan, but a commitment that was backed with political will.
Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, who made spoke to Blueprint on phone at the weekend, said the governor and every political office holder in Kaduna state patronised public hospitals.
The spokesman said the reason the governor closed down the Government House Clinic and asked all the doctors and health officials to report to General Hospitals when he assumed office, “is because he wants to improve the standard of public hospitals.”
Aruwan said that El-Rufai and all staff of the Government House patronised Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital, Tudun Wada, stressing that “go and check, our names are all on the list.”
When contacted, the Chief Medical Director, Dr Muhammad Bello Armayau, neither confirmed nor denied that the governor had been a patient in the hospital, but said he had met with Aruwan and some political office holders in the hospital.
He, however, thanked the governor for linking the hospital to the direct power line of the Government House about two months ago, which, according to him, has resulted in 24-hour uninterrupted electricity.
“Apart from this, the present administration has supplied beds, delivery beds and has installed theatres lights in the hospital. Malaria and meningitis drugs are also being stocked from time to time,” he said.
Armayau also said telecommunications giant, MTN, had upgraded a maternity ward and a labour room in the hospital to a state-of-the-art facility, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility.
