The Niger State Commissioner for Primary Health Care, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Dangana, said the recruitment of 1000 health workers to fill the manpower gap plaguing the sector will commence soon.
The commissioner made the disclosure to journalists Tuesday during the post-exco press briefing at Government House, Minna.
He said the delay in the recruitment, which was earlier ordered by the state governor, was caused by the non-composition of the State Civil Service Commission (CSC), and as soon as this is concluded, the recruitment exercise will commence in earnest.
He said the government has been responding to the challenges by engaging retired medical personnel on contract basis and regularising doctors who are on casual leave, revealing that the Japa phenomenon, where qualified medical personnel were leaving the country in droves, has affected the health sector in the state.
Dr. Ibrahim said recruiting specialists was not as easy as many people think, saying the governor was worried by the situation.
He disclosed that because of this, the governor had directed the resuscitation of scholarship programmes for medical doctors to arrest the brain drain.
He said his ministry, though newly created, has already commenced full implementation of its mandate, which included making excellent medical services accessible and affordable to communities in the state.
"Moreover, part of our mandate was to control the outbreak of diseases through health education and counselling and encourage citizens to practice good hygiene because prevention, they said, is better than cure,"  he stated.
The commissioner said the present administration will continue with other laudable health programmes initiated by the immediate past administration, stating that the state government, in collaboration with partners, is building an edifice that will coordinate efforts at eradicating polio and other infectious diseases.
He then revealed that soon the government would begin the rehabilitation and restructuring of primary health care centres, which would see them utilise resources that would see communities derive maximum benefits.