No plan to build new health centers-Health Minister

The Federal Government has no plan to build new Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Health Minister Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said.
He told The Nation by phone yesterday that there is no truth in a media report that government planned  to build 10,000 primary health centres across the country.
He said that on the contrary, government will “revitalize and not build new ones.”
But it will, in doing this, “partner with states to build where the facility has been destroyed or absent.”
“For instance, in Borno State about 60 percent of the PHCs have been destroyed while about 20 percent also suffered the same fate in Yobe and Adamawa states.
“What we intend to do is to revitalize these and make them functional. In some other states, the PHCs are enough and we only need to make that functional and effective.”
The minister said making these primary health centres across the country fully functional will facilitate the attainment of Universal Health Coverage and substantially reduce the pressure on secondary and tertiary health care facilities.
Prof. Adewole added that the inter ministerial committee in charge of this project is chaired by Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.
The Committee is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring a sustainable financing plan for the scheme.
He added that the plan is to move away from the past practices where PHCs are built and not sustainable.
“We don’t just want to put money there and it disappears,” he declared.
He said in spite of the present economic challenges, the health ministry  under his watch has developed one of the most ambitious health programmes in Africa under universal health coverage using primary health care as the fulcrum and that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration has no plans to suspend its commitment to the uplifting of the health sector.
He said so far 110 PHCs across the country have been selected as pilot for the revitalized project and that the inter- ministerial committee will give monthly reports of its finding to the Presidency.
He emphasized that at no time did the federal government or the ministry of health plan to build primary health centres across the country, this he said was the clear responsibility of states and local governments which the federal government does not want to take away from them.
Prof Adewole also said: “In fulfilling the campaign promises of the President, several active strategies have been put in place by the Health Ministry to drastically reduce the maternal and under five mortality rates and  that all hands are on deck to change the trajectory and remove Nigeria from the pariah status nation that we have founded ourselves.
“We are committed to eliminating wastes while promoting a culture of accountability and transparency. The war against polio is being fought vigorously and we intend to make Nigeria polio free. We are also committed to placing 500,000 people living with HIV on treatment with support of our partners and will tackle the scourge of TB with renewed vigour. The FMOH will work to reduce the need to Nigerians to travel abroad for medical reasons from 2017.”
He reiterated the commitment of the Buhari Administration the upliftment of the health of all citizens