By Rauf Oyewole
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate has inaugurated Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) ambulances and a refill station at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi to provide emergency care in rural and urban centres.
Pate, while speaking on Friday during the commissioning of the facilities held at ATBUTH, said that the ambulances were purchased to intervene in both primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals across the state. He said that the intervention was necessitated by the calls to provide succour for the residents of the state who are trapped in different healthcare facilities because of non-functioning ambulances.
The Minister said that the Federal Government “Noted an important weakness, many states don't invest enough, enough when they spend the money, it is not going towards the services, they spend on personnel and other things. We have to intervene and that is why in Bauchi State, across the 20 local government areas; we have actually impacted and we are doing that more.”
Pate said the Federal Government has revitalised several primary healthcare centres, and there are “more than 12,500 women, children and patients who have benefited from the emergency medical services in the last 18 months. There are over 5,000 women beneficiaries of obstetrics fistula services also in Bauchi. These are in addition to almost 4,000 graduates of Bauchi State who have gotten employment –there is no hospital in Nigeria that you will not see a Bauchi graduate, these are young people” he said.
The Minister urged the residents of the state to reward the President, Bola Tinubu with massive votes over his “love” for the state, saying that he appointed two ministers from the state.
Also, the Chief Medical Director of ATBUTH, Prof. Yusuf Bara, who commended the Minister and President Bola Tinubu, said modern healthcare requires reliable energy to support clinical and operational services that depend on dependable power. According to him, the CNG intervention adds another layer of resilience to the systems that support healthcare delivery.
“I'm particularly pleased to inform the Honourable Minister that this CNG facility has already successfully undergone a rigorous safety and compliance inspection by the North East Zonal Office of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA. We have met the required regulatory benchmarks and are fully prepared for the final stage of operational certification.
“This is important to us because a facility of this nature must not only serve its intended purpose; it must also be operated safely responsibly and in accordance with the required regulatory standards. We are committed to ensuring that the facility is properly maintained and operated with the safety of our patients, staff visitors and the surrounding environment,” he said.
Bara said that the distribution of ambulances is equally significant, saying that in healthcare, time is critical. “A patient may receive the right diagnosis and appropriate treatment plan, but a delay in reaching the facility where specialised care is available can have serious consequences.”
The ambulances were distributed to ATBUTH, Teaching Hospital Azare, Federal Medical Centre Misau, General Hospital Toro, General Hospital Ningi and General Hospital Gamawa.
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