Federal government plans new health centres

The Federal Government has announced its intention to provide thousands of new primary health care centres across the country, ThisDay newspaper reported on Thursday. Minister of Information, Jerry Gana, told journalists in the capital Abuja that work was already underway for the initial establishment of 200 health centres, one in each electoral ward, and that up to 8,000 were planned. The federal health care project was established following recent recommendations by the national primary health care authority, the Lagos newspaper reported. The National Council of Health (NCH), Nigeria's highest medical authority, adopted proposals earlier this year aimed at revamping the entire health sector. Amongst other things, it called for federal funding to provide new programmes to curb the spread of infectious diseases and to combat the parallel drug market where fake and adulterated drugs are sold at cheaper rates. A dysfunctional physical infrastructure, poor equipment, and a lack of trained doctors and pharmacists, are also factors hindering Nigeria's health system, health minister Alphonse Nwosu said at a meeting of the NCH in May.