The Nasarawa State House of Assembly has reaffirmed its commitment to collaborating with health agencies to address the issue of quackery in the state’s healthcare sector.
This was made known by Mr Larry Ven-Bawa, Chairman of the House Committee on Health, during a session with the Ministry of Health management, which appeared before the committee to present their first-quarter 2025 budget performance on Wednesday in Lafia.
Ven-Bawa highlighted that the activities of quacks in the health sector have had a detrimental impact on the lives of the people in the state.
He urged the Ministry of Health to speed up the process of transferring the Dalhatu Araf Specialists Hospital (DASH) Lafia’s structures to the Federal Government for use as a Federal University Teaching Hospital.
The committee also called for the immediate relocation of DASH to Akwanga Local Government Area to enable full operations.
“We are urging the Ministry of Health to take the process of ceding the hospital to the Federal Government more seriously,” Ven-Bawa stated.
He also called on the ministry to establish additional tertiary and secondary healthcare facilities across the state’s Senatorial zones to alleviate the challenges people face when seeking medical care.
“There needs to be more secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities in the state to meet the health needs of the people,” he added.
Ven-Bawa commended the ministry for its efforts to identify and eliminate quack doctors and illegal healthcare facilities operating in the state.
The lawmaker also praised Governor Abdullahi Sule for his strong interest and commitment to improving the health sector and encouraged him to continue pushing for progress.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Gaza Gwamna, informed the committee that the ministry was diligently working towards the successful transfer of DASH facilities to the Federal Government.
Gwamna also shared that the ministry was actively identifying quack doctors and unlicensed healthcare establishments in a bid to eradicate them from the state.
The committee also heard from the management of the Nasarawa State Health Insurance Scheme (NASHIA), led by Executive Director Dr Yahaya Bawa, and the Nasarawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency (NAPHCDA), led by Dr Usman Iskilu.
The committee commended both agencies for their efforts and assured them of the necessary support to fulfil their responsibilities in providing quality healthcare services.
In their responses, Bawa and Iskilu expressed their gratitude for the committee’s support and pledged to continue prioritising the health needs of the people of Nasarawa.
