GOVERNOR Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State has promised more qualitative healthcare services for the people.

Dr. Ahmed, who said that his government was committed to laying an enduring legacy for the sector believed that health remained a germane yardstick to measure the caring attitude of government to the people.

He spoke in Ilorin during an inspection tour of some of his administration’s on-going projects. They include renovation works at the former University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), streetlights along Ajase Ipo Road, Water Dam step-up station at Adewole, Ilorin and a Bridge on Afon Road, in Asa Local Government Area (LGA).

He promised timely completion of the projects towards making them accessible to the people.

On another occasion, the government distributed 13 new ambulances to 13 Specialist and General Hospitals across the state as well as equipment and Roll-Back-Malaria drugs to 43 primary health centres.

Ahmed recalled that the state government in 2011 purchased and distributed anti-malaria drugs worth N47 million and Rapid Diagnostic Test Kits worth over N11.3 million.

He added that about  two million long-lasting insecticidal nets have been distributed to households.

He debunked claims that the General Hospital, Ilorin would be converted into the Teaching Hospital arm of Kwara State University, (KWASU), Malete, Moro Local Government Area saying: “When the state university requires to have a teaching hospital we are going to set up a fresh teaching hospital. Don’t forget that we must have a general hospital.

“The health sector is broken down into three: The primary, secondary and tertiary. The primary are the basic health centres and clinics. The secondary are the general hospitals and tertiary are the specialist and teaching hospitals.

“If we end up converting the general hospital again to a teaching hospital we have to build another general hospital. As it were it might be easier to convert Sobi Specialist Hospital into teaching hospital. Most of our people want to firstly access primary and secondary health centres. The tertiary hospitals are for referrals from the primary and secondary. If you don’t have these two we are jumping the guns.

“That is why we want to make sure that for every cluster of primary health centres we will have a general hospital.”

He assured Kwarans that when the five general hospitals in Ilorin, Share, Offa, Kaiama and Omu-Aran, currently undergoing remodeling and three new ones billed for LGAs without secondary health institutions were completed, the capacity of the state’s healthcare delivery system to cope with malaria and other life threatening diseases and ailments would be strengthened.

According to him, his administration “remains committed to achieving our policy thrust of 500-metre accessibility to quality health-care within the shortest possible time by strengthening healthcare systems at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Ahmed acknowledged the positive contributions of the Millennium Development Goals office, Abuja, Federal Ministry of Finance and the National Malaria Control Programme as well as developmental partners such as Global Fund for collaborating with the state government in creating wider accessibility to quality healthcare.