NEMA Wants more Health Officials Deployed to Displaced Persons Camps

NEMA Wants more Health Officials Deployed to Displaced Persons Camps

The Director General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Muhammad Sani Sidi, has called for  deployment of more medical doctors and others health personnel to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps  to improve their healthcare.

Sidi, according to the statement signed today by the Senior Information Officer of NEMA, Mr. Sani Datti, stated this when he led a team of health policy specialists and clinicians for an on-the-spot health needs assessment and strategy appraisal  at IDP camps in Maiduguri, Borno State.

He said the assessment was to determined medical challenges and health related issues affecting IDPs camps in Maiduguri and other host communities as well as liberated communities with emphasis on children, maternal care and vulnerable persons.   

The NEMA boss disclosed that there were 12 satellite camps  set up in liberated communities currently without adequate health personnel.

He said even though the agency had  a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with University  of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and working relationship with other secondary health facilities for referral cases, these camps need to have medical personnel for immediate treatment  of  cases.

"It was observed that Bakasi camp which is accommodating 11,819 IDPs had recorded 27 new births as well as 3,393 out-patient consultations in February with only one medical doctor from UNICEF and some few health personnel attending to them," he noted.

Sidi also appealed to volunteer doctors who are willing to be deployed to camps in liberated communities to come forward and join the ones on ground, promising that  adequate security and incentives would be provided.

He listed common health problems identified in some of the visited camps to include hypertension, diabetes mellitus, eye problems, malaria, peptic ulcer disease and malnutrition. 

The NEMA director said some of the challenges noted down were inadequate health personnel and lack of steady supply of desirable drugs and medicaments.