The Director General of National Emergency Management Agency, Muhammad Sani Sidi has called for deployment of more medical doctors and other health
personnel to Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps to improve their healthcare.
Leading a team of Health Policy specialists and Clinicians for an on the spot Health needs assessment and strategy appraisal at IDPs camps in Maiduguri, Borno State, Sani Sidi said .
that his visit was to determine medical challenges and health related issues affecting IDPs camps in Maiduguri and host communities as well as liberated communities with emphasis on children, maternal care and vulnerable persons.
Sani Sidi said there were twelve (12) satellite camps set up in liberated communities currently without adequate health personnel adding that even though the agency had a MoU with University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and working relationship with other secondary health facilities for referral cases, the camps need to have medical personnel for immediate treatment of cases.
It was observed that in Bakasi camp which accommodates 11,819 IDPs had recorded 27 new births as well as 3,393 outpatient consultations in the month of February with only one Medical doctor from UNICEF and some few health personnel attending to them.
He 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. Common health problems identified in some of the visited camps included; Hypertension, Diabetes mellitus, Eye problems, Malaria, Peptic Ulcer and Malnutrition.
Some of the challenges noted down include inadequate health personnel and lack of steady supply of vitamins and medicines.
The satellite camps are in Dikwa, Mafa, Damboa, Baga, Bama, Gwoza, AskiraUba. Others include SabonGarin- Damboa, Beneishek ,NgamborouNgala, MongunuBaki and Kondiga.