Gov. Peter Mbah says that Enugu State’s ambitious target of producing 3,000 health professionals annually is possible with continuous investment and support of the World Health Organisation and its partners.

Mbah said this on Tuesday in Enugu while receiving Health Equipment and Items Donations from WHO and its partners for Training Institutions (Enugu State Colleges of Nursing in Parklane and Awgu, respectively).

The equipment and Items included: two brand new buses, two diesel generating sets, five suction machine pumps, 145 desktop computers, 13 Sharp multi-purpose three-in-one printers, a photocopier and scanner, and a back-up UPS.

Others are: four rechargeable public address systems, eight sets of 3D electronic board, 45 air conditioners with inverters, 157 ceiling fans, a monocular microscope and eight solar panels.

The rest are: 20 fire extinguishers and 20 fire blankets, hundreds of furniture (both chairs and tables), various laboratory prototypes of human organs and systems, and health consumables among others.

The governor said that the government would build more classrooms and hostels in the state’s nursing and health technology schools and help cover the gap of one million health professionals needed in the country.

According to him, the monumental equipment and items received today will assist us in closing all manpower gaps and improve our resolve to make the state the hub of healthcare professional training.

He said, “We have invested heavily in building 260 Type-2 PHC centres; upgrading all 51 general and cottage hospitals, strengthening our tertiary health institutions, and focusing on delivering our Quaternary (international) hospital.

“We have a vision to make Enugu the hub of medical tourism in the African sub-region and ensure that the state taps into the huge global medical tourism market.

“We are fully digitalising all health facilities in the state as well as ensuring that our students have the best state-of-the-art smart web-learning experience to improve their research and be at par with their contemporary counterparts worldwide.”

Mbah, while conveying the profound gratitude of the state to the WHO and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), said the donations would help in realising his administration’s vision to grow the state’s economy sevenfold.

Earlier, WHO Country Director and Head of Mission, Nigeria, Dr Pavel Ursu, said the donations followed a comprehensive infrastructure readiness assessment conducted by WHO on the two colleges of nursing in the state.

Ursu said that the donation was part of the WHO and its partners’ Equipment Support for Health Training Institutions (ESHTI) Initiative in 13 health institutions in the country, with Enugu State having two institutions.

He said Mbah had set a commendable example in health system investment and listed several remarkable interventions of the administration in health sector development in two years.

“WHO commends your administration for the bold and strategic investment in health system strengthening, health infrastructure expansion, and primary healthcare revitalization.

“These efforts are expected to reduce patient wait times, improve quality of care, and enable evidence-based decision-making,” Ursu said.

He commended Mbah for his investment in human resources for health through the approval of the recruitment of 2,200 health workers across all cadres, with 450 already on board, as well as support to health training institutions.

Speaking, Dr Ebere Anyachukwu, Nigeria Health Advisor of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), praised the governor’s efforts in transforming the state’s health system, adding that FCDO had been observing efforts already made in the health sector.

“We are proud to have partnered with Enugu State and the WHO to provide this support, and we hope that this will improve the quantity, quality, and effectiveness of the health workforce,” he said.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Prof. George Ugwu, said that the donation would improve the positive health indices and indicators of the state.

Ugwu thanked the WHO, FCDO, and the UK International Development for the gesture, adding: “we need more as our health-loving governor is expanding all frontiers of health facilities at every level of healthcare”.

“His Excellency, Dr Peter Mbah, has envisioned an Enugu renowned for being the medical hub of Africa, where net worth personalities will come to seek the best healthcare services with the latest state-of-the-art medical equipment.

“There is an ongoing widening of the state’s universal healthcare coverage through the state’s health insurance scheme and other health programmes/packages meant to improve the health standard of the people,” he added. (Daily Independent)