Two thousand trained health workers abscond in Bauchi

 Dr. Halima Mukkadas, Bauchi State Commissioner for Health, on Tuesday disclosed that out of 4,000 health workers trained by the Bauchi State government, 2,000 have absconded.


Dr. Mukkadas revealed this while answering questions from journalists during a one-day Journalists Roundtable on Bauchi State 2015 Health Budget Scorecard held at NUJ Secretariat, Bauchi.

“The 4,000 that were sponsored by the government were given automatic employment after the training but unfortunately 2,000 of them absconded without serving out their bond with the state government,” the commissioner said.

She disclosed that Bauchi State is among the six states in the North East that would benefit from N125 million World Bank Health Credit Facility over the period of five years.

The commissioner said the states that would benefit from the credit facility are Yobe, Borno, Adamawa,  Bauchi,  Taraba and Gombe, adding that Yobe and Borno would get the lion’s share while Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba would get the least.

She said Bauchi State would get N24 million saying the funds would be channeled directly to the hospitals.

“The disbursement of the funds will be based on performance of each hospital. The government will have minimal interference on the disbursement.

“Bauchi is currently hosting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Borno and Yobe states affected by insurgency and because the health facility in the state is overstretched, we need the funds to be able to build more health facilities across the state.

“We established that 10,000 people are in a community without health facility, so we will build one for them and at the moment we have 1,777 primary health centres in Bauchi State.

Also speaking, Bulak Afsa, Secretary, Bauchi State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal and Newborn Health (BASAM) called on the state government to always publish budget Information on time as well as ensure the timely release of budget funds for capital projects.

She also enjoined the state government to ensure that over 70 per cent of capital funds is released and adequate budget allocation made to the health sector.