The governor of Yobe state, Ibrahim Gaidam, has approved the placement of additional 110 medical students on salary Grade Level 07 in order to encourage home-grown and home-trained corps of medical doctors.
The Medical students will join the 389 others who have already been placed on the government’s payroll and have been receiving their salary every month.
In a statement signed by the Director-General, Press Affairs to the governor, Abdullahi Bego, said the scheme is designed to incentivize medical students and get them to return and serve in the state after completing their MBBS degree training.
“The Yobe State Government will spend a total of N41, 392, 560.00 per annum to pay the additional 110 medical students who have just been enrolled in the government’s payroll.
“With the setting up of a new Medical College at the Yobe State University and a new Yobe University Teaching Hospital, the goal of His Excellency thegovernor is to cultivate Yobe’s homegrown and home-trained corps of medical doctors who will join in providing the medical services that people across the state need,” the statement noted.
It could be recalled that the state government had recruited an additional 228 medical doctors, consultants, nurses and other categories of specialists and professional medical workers for the newly established Yobe University Teaching Hospital, YSUTH.
The gesture was aimed at improving the people’s access to quality and affordable healthcare services, as the teaching hospital began to provide medical and clinical services to the public.
The latest recruitment of medical staff for the hospital is the second, after similar exercise by the state government in December 2016, according to a statement by the spokesperson of the governor, Abdullahi Bego.
During the first batch, the governor approved the recruitment of 158 doctors, nurses, and other staff for the new teaching hospital, including 17 expatriate doctors who were recruited from the Republic of Egypt.
The latest recruitment of the 228 additional medical personnel follows interviews conducted by a special recruitment committee headed by YSUTH Chief Medical Director, Baba Waru Goni.
The statement said “Of this number, there are six medical consultants, 30 medical officers, seven dental officers, 22 nursing officers, seven skilled nurses, 66 general duty nurses, 10 pharmacists, six radiographers, two X-Ray technicians, five pharmacy technicians.”
Also the number includes “13 health management information officers, 29 HIM technicians, two dieticians, five physiotherapists, one audiologist, two optometrists, two opticians, three dental therapists, nine dental technicians, one plaster technician, and two medical lab technicians.”
It further said renovations and expansion of the General Hospitals in Gaidam, Gashu’a and Potiskum Towns are ongoing, which the state government also intend to equip.
