Kaduna State and global corporate giant, General Electric, Thursday, flagged-off a programme to equip 278 health care facilities in Kaduna State.

This is the biggest ever refit of the public healthcare infrastructure in the state.

It represents the Kaduna State Government’s effort to provide a comprehensive solution to the healthcare challenges in the state, including maternal and infant mortality, communicable illnesses and the problems caused by the growth of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

At its first health summit held last year, Nasir El-Rufai, governor of the state, announced the determination of the government to the perils that pregnant mothers and infants face.

He said it is a priority to improve health outcomes for ordinary people.

To achieve these goals, Kaduna State is striving to improve primary healthcare for all people, while at the same time, improving the quality and readiness of health service delivery by ramping up the supply and quality of health professionals.

Under the partnership between GE and Kaduna State, 255 primary health centres will be equipped along with 23 general hospitals across the state. The programme also includes a package of training for the healthcare professionals and a three-year maintenance agreement for the equipment. The project will deliver at least one refitted hospital in each of the 255 wards in the state.

Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, welcomed the flag- off of the partnership with GE.

“The Kaduna State Government is seeking better health outcomes for its people. This partnership with GE will accelerate the development of our health facilities and equip them to deliver better services. The equipment, technologies and training our state is getting under this partnership will help to improve standards of maternal and infant care, implant safer surgical standards and raise our capacity for disease prevention and infection control.”

He added that “As one of the largest states in Nigeria, with a growing population many of whom live in the rural areas, Kaduna is innovating through comprehensive approaches that improve health facilities and equipment, service delivery, clinical protocols and patient referrals. Given its track record, we are delighted to be working with GE in deploying this first-of-a-kind programme.”

Farid Fezoua, CEO of GE Healthcare Africa, said that “GE applauds the Kaduna State Government for its vision to improve health care for the citizens”.

Kaduna State is putting units of relevant medical technology including ultrasound, heart monitors, neonatal incubators and anaesthesia machines – into the hands of our health workers. Ultrasounds are used to detect a range of conditions. It improves the accuracy of tests conducted on the foetus when pregnant women undertake ante-natal visits and can aid early detection of and referral of pregnancy complications. V-Scan Access assists primary healthcare workers – such as midwives, general practitioners, paramedics and clinical officers – in low-resource settings to provide information to the user during pregnancy assessments.

The heart monitoring devices will address cardiovascular screening issues and improve the management of high blood pressure, cholesterol or high blood glucose. GE’s basic cardiac screening device connect hearts to digital ECG, helping clinicians test more patients in less time.

The multi-year partnership between Kaduna State and GE will increase access to essential technologies for better maternal and infant care, heart screenings to tackle the rise of cardiovascular illnesses and improved care during surgeries.

This combination of new technology, maintenance and training will improve healthcare outcomes in Kaduna State.