Plateau Govt. says it will support the establishment of private Health Institutions in the state to address shortage of manpower in the health sector.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Nimkong Lar, stated this on Tuesday in Jos at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Hill College of Nursing and Midwifery, Jos, and his Ministry.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Martins Azzuwut, Lar said that the ministry would support all private investors to establish health institutions in the state but would have to meet the standard requirements.
“It is the responsibility of the state ministry to support all investors that want to establish health Institutions, as long as they meet up with the minimum standards,”he said.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ministry had closed down the premises of Hill College of Nursing and Midwifery in September 2019,following irregularities discovered in the school. .
” We want a situation where any training institution that takes off from the state maintains standard and I am happy that the proprietress of Hill Nursing and Midwifery college is cooperating with the committee to achieve that,” he said.
The commissioner acknowledged the proprietress’s for cooperation with the ministry to ensure professionalism in the health sector, saying the college should liaise with the state monitoring nursing council for guidance, to meet the requirements.
The commissioner said the premises of the institution was reopened for the proprietress to continue preparations to meet the minimum standard requirements before it would commence operations.
“There are no students in the school yet, as written in the document, it is the responsibility of the state ministry of health to ensure that no quacks are trained in any health institution in the state,” he said.
He said the ministry was working with various professional councils in the health sector to regulate its operations and ensure acceptable practices.
He said the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria in Plateau had recently sealed illegal pharmaceutical stores and other illegal chemists operating without licence.
Earlier in her remarks, the Director of Nursing Services of the ministry, Mrs Ladi Zhu, said the nursing profession was very critical to the well being of Nigerians, and therefore required adherence to professional standards to train its personnel.
The proprietress of Hill College of Nursing and Midwifery, Jos, Hajiya Nafisa Umar, said that she was committed to promoting maternal Health, safe motherhood and immunisation for children.
Umar said the establishment of the college was informed by the need to address the shortage of manpower in the health sector, saying the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria would pay an accreditation visit to the school as contained in its letter sent to the college’s management.
