News Post

Senate Passes Bills To Establish Medical Centres In Four States, Amends Teaching Hospitals Act

The Senate, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 passed into law four Bills to establish four Federal Medical Centres in four States of the Federation.

The Medical Centres involved will be sited in Osogbo, Osun State; Onitsha, Anambra State; Gada, Sokoto State; and Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, respectively. 

The passage of the Bills followed the consideration of four separate reports by the Committee of the Whole after they were presented before the Chamber by the Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) for consideration. 

Chairman of the Health Committee, Sen. Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC, Kwara Central), while presenting the reports on the Bills said the Centres would be equipped with facilities for diagnostic treatment and rehabilitation at the tertiary levels.

The lawmaker added that the institutions would also serve as Centres for training of health professionals and conduct advance health researches.  

In a related development, the Senate, on the same Tuesday, also passed into law a Bill seeking to amend the Teaching Hospitals (Reconstitution of Boards, etc.) Act 2004. 

Sen. Oloriegbe, in another presentation on the report of Teaching Hospitals Reconstitution Bill explained that the amendment to the Act, seeks to give full legal backing to the establishment Federal University Teaching Hospital, Lokoja. 

He stated that “Mr. President and Distinguished Colleagues, every Institution needs to be backed by an enabling law”. “It is against this background that this Bill is before this chamber”. 

The Lawmaker noted that as at today, training facilities in the health sector are inadequate for the current population whose projected population growth for Nigeria currently stood out at 3 percent per annum. Therefore, establishing the Federal University Teaching Hospital, Lokoja will address this gap among other things. 

The Chairman added that the Bill seeks to amend the First Schedule of the Principal Act to include the Federal University Teaching Hospital, Lokoja. He stressed that this amendment when passed into law provides the much legal backing to the Federal University Teaching Hospital.

The four Bills establishing the Federal Medical Centres, and the Bill to amend the Teaching Hospitals Act 2004, were all passed into law by the Senate during plenary.