House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions has presented for public scrutiny bills seeking to establish five medical centres across the country.
The Speaker of the House, Representative Femi Gbajabiamila unveiled the public hearing for the bills, which was organised by the Rep Paschal Obi-led Committee on Health Institutions at the National Assembly, Abuja, on Wednesday.
The legislative items are: “A Bill for an Act to Establish the Federal Medical Centre, Hong, Adamawa State; A Bill for an Act to Establish the National Agency for Sickle Cell Disease and other Heritable Blood Disorder (Prevention and Treatment) for the Treatment, Prevention, Control, Management and Research of Sickle Cell Disease and other Heritable Blood Disorder in Nigeria”.
Others are “A Bill for an Act to Establish the Federal Medical Centre, Billiri, Gombe State; A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Legal Framework to Establish the Federal Medical Centre, Igboora, Oyo State, and A Bill for an Act to Establish the Federal Medical Centre, Mubi, Adamawa State”.
In his speech at the event, the Speaker said, “When we resumed office in the 9th Assembly, we set out a Legislative Agenda that outlined the scope of our governing ambitions; the problems we intended to solve and the challenges we hoped to overcome.
”In that document, we made commitments to improve access to healthcare services for all our nation’s people, increase funding for healthcare research, improve the mechanisms for training and providing for our healthcare professionals amongst other things.
“Our gathering here today, and tomorrow, is in part fulfilment of these ambitions. We are here to review five bills currently under consideration in the House of Representatives.”
He, however, noted that the “bills are for now, legislative proposals.”
Gbajabiamila explained that “the primary purpose of this Public Hearing is to give stakeholders from across the country the opportunity to make contributions that will improve these Bills so that the ambitions that underpin them may be achieved in full. This is an important part of the legislative process.”
He added, “The success of this hearing will depend entirely on the quality of the contributions that you each make through the memoranda you submit to the Committee and the conversations that will hold here over the next two days. So, I ask you to make the best of this opportunity in the best interest of our country”.
”I look forward to receiving the Committee’s report on these Bills, and I am certain that the quality of your output will reflect your best efforts.”
He also promised his support and that of the House of Representatives, assuring that they will work together to improve the nation’s healthcare system.
