Bureau of Statistics begins census of health facilities in Kaduna State

THE Kaduna State Bureau of Statistics has commenced enumeration of all health facilities in the state to determine the number and needs for effective planning, the State’s Statistician General, Alhaji Bashari Bature-Ibrahim, has said.

Bature-Ibrahim, who was in Giwa and Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Shika to monitor the exercise, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria on Thursday that the census is being conducted in all the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

“The exercise is aimed at identifying the locations and characteristics of all the health facilities in Kaduna state and it covers primary, secondary, tertiary and even private facilities.

“So that government will have the picture of how the aspect of health is moving in the state in order to plan for the improvement and betterment of its people.

“This is because, if you don’t know how your facilities are, you cannot plan on how to improve them,” he said.

According to him, the exercise will provide an update on existing health facilities in the state and generate a framework toward getting a comprehensive and total list of the facilities.

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He said that the bureau had engaged students of Kaduna State University and Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic for the survey.

“You know, socio-economic researches is one of the areas for both the statisticians and economists, so, by recruiting them to be part of our exercises, we are giving them skills that they could not get in their respective institutions,” he said.

The state statistician-general appealed to communities across the state to give the enumerators total support for the success of the exercise.

At Giwa Local Government Secretariat, the Director of Personnel Management, Hajiya Ummakaltum Sambo said enumerators were being assisted to conduct the exercise.

“My appeal is that if they find out that the facilities are not up to standard, they should kindly report so that the state government can further improve or standardise them.

“This standardisation can be achieved through the provision of equipment and posting of required technical staff to man the facilities,” she said.