Nasarawa Assembly scrutinizes bill on health

Category: Inside politics Published on Thursday, 17 January 2013 06:00 Written by Joseph Hir, Lafia

A private bill seeking the establishment of a special institution for the training of health professionals has passed its second reading in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly.

Sponsor of the bill, Mallam Ibrahim Bala Moscolo representing Keffi West Constituency said it is expected to establish a health institution which will cater for “diverse health professionals courses of study, training, and research in health technology studies as well as other spheres of health learning.”

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) member said the proposed institution if established, would run its programmes “based on course unit and credit system, operate a semester system, conduct research, organize and attend seminars, lecturing pattern of using both theory and practical sessions, and equipping student with correct mix of knowledge, skills and characters to be better citizens for the state and national development.”

He said the academic prog-rammes that the institution would offer include but not limited to pharmacy, dental, dark-room technicians; community health, nursing, environmental medical laboratory, and post graduate diplomas and programmes for practicing practitioners.

He drew attention to the under-utilization of the School of Health Technology, Keffi which he said, is operating at about 30-40 percent capacity, noting that the institution could only admit 400 students at a time, saying such limitation posses a great danger to our society.