Maiduguri, – The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has called on the Federal and State Governments to deploy additional doctors and other health personnel to Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP), camps in the country.
This, according to Alhaji Sani Sidi, the NEMA Director General, in Maiduguri on Thursday, would improve health care delivery to the displaced persons.
Sidi stated this when he led a team of the agency’s Health Policy Specialists and Clinicians on the Health Needs Assessment and Strategy Appraisal in IDP camps in Maiduguri.
He said inadequate medical personnel in IDP camps had negatively affected the living conditions of the displaced persons, especially in Borno.
“A total of 27 new births were recorded in the Bakassi IDP camp accommodating 11, 819 displaced persons in February going by records.
“This is in addition to 3,393 out-patient consultations conducted in February alone with only one medical doctor from UNICEF and some few health personnel attending to them”, he said.
The NEMA boss also appealed to volunteer doctors willing to be deployed to IDP camps in liberated communities to come forward and join the ones on ground.
He promised that adequate security and incentives would be provided for them.
He explained that the assessment visit was to determine the medical challenges and health related issues affecting the IDP camps in Maiduguri.
“The assessment is aimed at determining the medical challenges and health related issues in the IDP camps in Maiduguri.
“It is also aimed at assessing the health situation in host communities as well as liberated towns and villages with emphasis on children, maternal care and vulnerable persons”, Sidi said.
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added that NEMA had established 12 satellite camps for IDPs in liberated villages in the state.
“They are located in Dikwa, Mafa, Damboa, Bama, Gwoza, Askira-Uba, Sabon Gari, Benesheikh, Ngamboru, Monguno, Banki and Konduga.
“But the camps lack adequate health personnel”, Sidi said.
He listed hypertension, diabetes mellitus, eye problems, malaria, peptic ulcer and malnutrition as some health challenges in the camps visited. (NAN)