The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, on Friday said the Federal Government will soon create seven trauma centres nationwide to cater for emergencies.
He also said the government will revitalize about 10,000 Primary Health Care (PHC) centres to reduce pressure on teaching hospitals.
Adewole, who spoke with some select journalists in Abuja, said the nation will soon have a trauma policy.
He said: “The issue of trauma centre is not complex but it is also not simple. We want to ensure that each of our hospitals has a trauma centre no matter how small.
“As part of evolution of what you can call an upgrade in the system, we are now creating specialized trauma centres and it is not peculiar to Nigeria. Already, there is one at the National Hospital in Abuja and another in Gwagwalada.
“I actually invited seven Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) to my ministry and I said that I am looking for money to upgrade seven teaching hospitals, at least one in each geopolitical zone. I picked Maiduguri in the North-East, ABUTH in the North-West, National Hospital, UNTH in the South-East , UBTH, UCH Ibadan and UITH Ilorin and I said in 2017, I will start with them.
“I asked each of the Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) to identify two major priorities. The UMTH, Maiduguri CMD picked a trauma centre and I think the next one will be a cancer centre.
“The trauma centre in Maiduguri will cost about N2.5billion. When you add that to the cost of setting up a cancer centre, each of the teaching hospitals might need about N5billion. So, if we want to create seven trauma centres, we might need about N35billion plus or minus. We have 12 but we said we should start with seven.
“We are also working on a trauma policy; the ministry is going to have an emergency policy. What do we do for emergency; it will soon become a public matter.”
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