The Chairman of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Abdullahi Muhammad, has inaugurated a Medical Guidelines Review Committee for 2019 Hajj.
The inauguration, which took place Thursday at the commission’s conference room, has members drawn from the Federal Ministry of Health, State Pilgrims’ Welfare Boards (SPWB) and staff of NAHCON.
The committee, according to NAHCON spokesperson, Fatima Usara, in a statement, is expected to review existing medical operation’s guidelines “due to dynamism of hajj operations that necessitates constant appraisal and re-strategising.”
Mrs Usara also said the committee is expected to make recommendations on how to improve on successes so far recorded in hajj medical operations.
She said the review will equally focus on medical team recruitment procedure and composition as well as recommending minimum and maximum duration of engagement of medical personnel in 2019 hajj operation.
The committee, she said, is expected to recommend “reasonable remuneration for medical personnel, taking financial capabilities of individual states into cognisance” and to also identify and review the performance of medical personnel in 2018 hajj in order to propose methods of improvement.
Mrs Usara said the committee, headed by the board member in charge of medical services in NAHCON, Ibrahim Kana, is expected to propose a budget for drugs, medical consumables and ratio of funding by state’s and NAHCON.
Other duties
Other measures expected are educating medical team members on terms and conditions of engagement and the need to abide by them once they become signatories to these.
In his speech, the NAHCON Chairman thanked the members for accepting to serve in the committee despite the short notice.
He also harped on the relevance in composition of members of the committee, which, he said, reflects the “consultative nature of the Commission”.
In response, the chairman of the committee thanked NAHCON’s Chief Executive Officer for the confidence reposed on them to carry out the assignment.
He promised that the committee would present its report within the shortest time possible.
Other members of the committee are: the Executive Secretary, Adamawa SPWB; General Overseer, Kaduna SPWB; Director, FCT SPWB, representative of Kano State SPWB; Borno state Executive Chairman of SPWB, NAHCON’s Deputy Director Account, Deputy Director Audit, Deputy Director Administration and Human Resources, Head of Planning Division and Jibrin Suleiman of Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja.
The statement said the committee is expected to submit its report within one week of inauguration.
