El-Rufa'i To Shutdown Illegal Nursing Schools

The Kaduna State Government has vowed to shutdown all unregistered private nursing schools in the state to protect its citizens from quack health personnel.

Disclosing this, Kaduna state Commissioner of Health, Dr Amina Mohammed Baloni said the schools operate illegally.

She added that the schools also lack equipments, staff power and authorisation from necessary professional bodies.

The commissioner who spoke at a one day interactive forum by the Kaduna Maternal Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM), in collaboration with the State Ministry of Health said the move was to safeguard the citizenry from quack health care providers.

Dr Baloni said reviewing existing laws is ongoing by the government and "Working with all the authorities like local governments, education, professional bodies, tax authorities for us to know if actually those operating private schools of health are even qualified and meet the criteria.”

“We are having series of meetings with the concerned authorities and professional bodies to check the list of people they accredited and then to cross check with those that have registered with us,’’ she further explained.

She also disclosed the government's plan to improve the health sector through provision of ambulances at Primary Healthcare facilities all over the state.

She added that in order to respond to the issues of transporting emergency patients, partnership between the government and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) will be reactivated.

Various stakeholders and other development partners in the health sector attended the forum.

A non governmental organization, Save the Children International, and sister organization, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) supported the forum.

 ‘‘Improving Health Care Delivery Through Basic Health Care Provision Fund Implementation’’ was the theme for the forum.