Stakeholders in Gombe State have drummed support for the establishment of a new federal medical centre (FMC) in Deba to bridge the huge gap between primary and tertiary healthcare delivery in the estate.
They separately spoke at a public hearing on a bill seeking to establish a federal medical centre, organised by the Senate Committee on Health.
Gombe State currently has no federal medical centre after the upgrading of the existing one to a federal teaching hospital.
The sponsor of the bill, Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe), said establishing the health facility has become expedient to alleviate the sufferings of the people in seeking tertiary healthcare services.
Other stakeholders, who made presentations at the public hearing, said population has outgrown the only tertiary health facility in Gombe due to high influx of people from the neighbouring states as a result of insurgency in the North East zone.
Gombe State’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Habu Dahiru, said the health facility, when established, would provide easy access for patients in need of special care and referrals from primary and secondary facilities in the state and the neighbouring Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
“At the moment, the indicators for maternal and child health including nutrition in the state and the North East sub-region are poor and need institutions such as FMC to improve training, research and expert management to reverse the trend,” he said.
