Katsina Government shuts 69 Primary Healthcare Centres over insecurity

The Katsina State Government has shutdown no fewer than 69 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in frontline local government areas of the state over the prevailing nefarious activities of marauding terrorists.

The Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (KSPHDA), Dr. Shamsudeen Yahaya, disclosed this yesterday in an interview with journalists in Katsina.

Yahaya said that the affected primary healthcare facilities are located in different hard-to-reach communities in Jibia, Safana, Batsari, Faskari, Sabuwa and other frontline local government areas in the state.

He added that the rampaging terrorists had set ablaze two recently renovated primary healthcare centres in Batsari Local Government.

He confessed that insecurity had significantly affected healthcare delivery in the state.

Yahaya said: “For example, we renovated two facilities in Batsari but they were attacked and burnt by bandits.

“Right now, about 69 facilities are closed down in Jibia, Safana, Batsari, Sabuwa, Faskari and other LGAs due to insecurity and we have had some of our staff kidnapped but later released.

“Another challenge is that almost every week, we receive requests from our staff, especially females, that they should be moved from those areas to Katsina, Batagarawa or Kaita. These are the issues that we are fencing.”

He, however, said that the state government had perfected plans to recruit 272 health workers to tackle the problem of manpower besetting the health sector in the state.