Dr Olorunimbe Mamora, Minister of state for Health, on Friday reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to provision of quality healthcare for older persons and vulnerable community in the country.
Mamora stated this while receiving the leadership of Coalition of Societies for the Rights of Older Persons in Nigeria (COSROPIN), who paid him in his office in Abuja.
He assured them of the willingness of the Federal Government to build six geriatric hospitals across the six geopolitical zones.
The Minister said that the Ministry had taken assessment of the areas in which the facilities would be established.
Mamora also intimated the senior citizens of the plans by President Muhammadu Bhari-led administration to revitalise Primary Healthcare Centres across the country.
According to him, though there were more than 30,000 primary healthcare centres in Nigeria, many of them were not functional.
He stressed that the Federal Government was determined to activate the Primary Healthcare Centres through provision of essential services, power, and accessible roads.
Mamora said that the Federal Government would continue to expand coverage of ongoing National Non Contributive Health Insurance (NNCHIS) for persons above 70 years.
“As you can see, the Police force has benefited from the National Non Contributory Health Insurance, we are taking it further to all,” he said.
Earlier, Sen. Eze Ajoku, President of the coalition, said that the priority of older persons was accessibility of quality healthcare.
Ajoku, who commended the minster for giving prior attention to the affairs of the vulnerable and older persons; and appealed for intervention for the passage of Rights and Privileges Bill, which had passed second reading in the Senate.
He also appealed to the minister for intervention in the burial of a 97 year old woman, whose remains had been abandoned in the mortuary for the past three years.
Ajoku, however, urged the ministry to devise institutional framework for provision of functional older persons care centres for quality healthcare care for all older persons in the country irrespective of class or background.
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