Kaduna — In his bid to improve healthcare delivery and provide quality healthcare service to the people of Kaduna State, Governor Namadi Sambo has inaugurated Management Committees for 19 General Hospitals in the state.

Sambo noted that in line with the promise of his government, a state of the art specialist hospital will soon be built in the state to cater for the people and provide special services which hitherto can only be found outside the country.

He solicited the cooperation of all members of the committees in his administration's resolve to provide quality healthcare services to the people of the state.

"Government will soon establish a state of the art specialist hospital in Kaduna in collaboration with foreign partners aimed at stopping Nigerians from going outside the country for medical treatment.

"You know I have sworn to provide quality leadership to the state and I cannot do it alone, but with assistance from all men and women of calibre like you.

It will be possible," he said.

The governor said he had made it a cardinal policy of his administration to provide free medical care for pregnant women and children under the age of five in some selected General Hospitals in the state which would later be extended to all the 26 hospitals and 112 Primary Health Centres in the state.

Speaking earlier, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Yari Everton Peters, said the government's effort is in fulfilment the desire to ensure community participation in the provision and maintenance of healthcare delivery.

"Nineteen hospitals will have management committees whose membership is derived from the host community, to ensure community ownership of the facilities," he also said.

He said the ultimate goal is to ensure proper coordination of healthcare delivery from primary to secondary and tertiary levels, saying that the state has invested in the secondary healthcare facilities in terms of rehabilitation, renovation, upgrading, renovation and re-equipping.

After the inauguration of the committees, the governor visited the general store where the drugs meant for the free scheme are being stored.