Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State has re-opened the oldest public pediatric in the State, Hasiya Bayero pediatric Hospital closed down by the Abdullahi Umar Ganduje administration.
The development comes 33 years after it was first opened and also signifies the the first project commissioned by the Governor in his first 100 days in office.
According to a Daily Trust report, the present administration in June had revoked the sale of the Hospital allegedly sold to an individual at the rate of N6 million by the previous administration.
The Ganduje administration had denied selling the hospital, saying its services were only transferred to a new and bigger pediatric hospital built under public private partnership.
Speaking at the commissioning event on Sunday, Governor Yusuf said the hospital is one of the few public pediatric hospitals in the whole of Northern Nigeria.
He said it has the capacity of 86 beds seeing about 5000 patients across the state and its neighbourhood.
“Some of the services rendered include general peadiatric consultations, free admission of outpatients services, Immunization services, nutritional services research, training and referral services.
“However, as part of our campaign promises to the good people of Kano State, we recovered and provided state of the art equipment and other needed infrastructure for the smooth operation of the facility with a view to tie the abysmally highly infant morbidity and mortality in the State.
“I believe that the recovery of this will reduce the burden of medical and surgical healthcare challenges for the good people of Kano State especially our dear children who are vulnerable to all sorts of diseases.”
The Governor further called on all healthcare workers across the State to show dedication and commitment to duty as his administration will not tolerate any act of indiscipline, misconduct or stealing of public property.
On his part, the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, while thanking the Governor for redeeming the image of the facility said, “we will not forget about the history of this place since the days of our childhood.
“It has been rendering essential services to our children especially the less privileged. We are most grateful for reviving it while we are calling on all concerns and the citizens of the state to lend hands to the government to succeed.
“We believe the good heart and intentions of the Governor god gave him the ability to do this. We pray that God continues to protect and guide him to do more.”
Present at the event are the Deputy Governor, Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo, Commissioner of health, Dr Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, members of the State Executive Council, the representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Haruna Adamu and other development partners.
The Executive Secretary, Hospital Management Board (HMB), Dr Mansur Mudi Nagoda, also called on the Staff to make judicious use the facilities provided and adhere to the ethics and professional values of their work.
