The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON)’s medical team has introduced a Caravan System of health delivery to the pilgrims this year in the Mashaa’ir (religious sites) areas of Muna, Arafat and Muzdalifah.
The Chairman, NAHCON’s National Medical Team, Dr Ibrahim Kana, in a statement on Sunday, sought for cooperation from all States Hajj authorities for the success of the initiative.
Dr Kana said the Caravan Health delivery system entails distribution of medical personnel to States, or to the zones of South-East and South-South, and ensuring that the medical personnel accompanied, in the same bus, the pilgrims of the States and or the two zones, during their movement from Makkah to the Mashaa’ir areas.
He, therefore, urged the heads of State pilgrims Boards and Agencies to provide space for makeshift clinics, for male and female pilgrims in their tents.
He said for States with large number of pilgrims, the like of Kaduna, Kano and Lagos, additional personnel would be provided if they made adequate provision for their deployment at their tents.
Dr Kana further stated that the Chairman of the Commission, Barrister Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad, had approved the request for the supply of all necessary drugs, medical consumables and equipment, which will be delivered to the Medical Store on Monday or Tuesday for distribution to States that cued into the new initiative.
He also hoped that the States had abided by the suggestion that they recruited Environmental Health Workers to ensure cleanliness and maintain sanitation and hygiene within and without the tents in Muna.
The commissioner, who said the commission had already taken delivery of four new Mercedes Benz Ambulances, equipped with oxygen concentrators and other resuscitation gadgets for use during pilgrims stay at the religious sites, advised that States with ambulances were to cue them into the central ambulance system to serve all pilgrims under a single management structure.
Dr Kana, who said toll numbers would be provided in the next couple of days, also advised that a mutual channel of communication be opened between all stakeholders on Hajj, for a stress and hitch free exercise.
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