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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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12 years after, Nnamdi Azikiwe hospital yet to get take off grant
TWELVE years after the Federal Government took over the Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), it is yet to release the take off grant for the institution.
This was the revelation that welcome members of the Senate Committee on Health, who visited the hospital yesterday.
And to move to its permanent site, the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) requires about N740 million, the senate team has heard.
The panel on a nationwide inspection of health organisations owned by the Federal Government is on a tour to enable government make appropriate provision for them in the next budget.
The team said the former Minister of Health, Prof. Alphonsus Nwosu, did not do enough to keep the hospital on course.
The hospital is the only referral health facility in Anambra State. The chairman of the committee, Senator Gbenga Oguniya led the team, including the vice chairman Senator Emma Obiajulu Anosike, who was shocked to hear that the take off grant from government had not being received since its inception in 1990.
Anosike said that the Senate was aware of the inadequacies in the hospitals, but the committee was shocked at the high level of decay and crisis within the sector.
He said that their tour was in line with Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution, which mandates them to see every federal establishment before appropriating funds for them in any budget.
A member, Senator Jonathan Adagba lauded the Nnewi community over it's assistance to the hospital.
The team asked the management of the hospital to mobilise at the permanent site. It appealed to the management and workers, including resident doctors, to show more commitment to their work and to reduce industrial disputes.
In a four-page document in which he catalogued the problems affecting the hospital, the Acting Chief Medical Director, Dr. Robinson Ofiaeli blamed paucity of funds for the slow rate of development and lack of certain equipment in the institution.
The hospital, with a staff strength of 1,500 and 70 consultants, also has 352 members of staff at its Eye Centre at Onitsha; National Diagnostic Centre at Nenis Trauma Centre at Oba, and the Community Health Centres at Neni, Ukpo and Umunya Anambra State as well as at Atta-Ikeduru in Imo State.
The committee later left for Port Harcourt, River State in continuation of the national tour.
In Enugu, the management of UNTH told the senators that the hospital could only move to its permanent site at Ituku Ozalla, if it receive N740 million from the government.
The hospital's Chief Medical Director Dr. Tony Mba, who spoke on problems militating against the movement to the new site at which work was begun over five years ago, declared that more funds were needed to provide necessary facilities at the new site.
He said that a central sewage system, incinerators and logistics, especially vehicles for movement of staff as well as staff quarters, were needed.
Said he: "It is our view and eagerness to move down to our permanent site but there are problems, which are militating against this movement. As you can see, we have an Out-Patient Department here handling patients, but we have not been able to start rendering In-Patient services here because of a few things which we need to do. One of these things is the central sewage system, we need to put the sewage in a functional shape, so that we don't bring in patients here to experience epidemics.
''The other thing is the incinerator, because once we start In-Patient services here, we generate a lot of medical waste and therefore, we need to have a scientific way of disposal of those things. Another need is the logistics of transporting our staff from the old site to the new site. You can see that the distance is quite far and it is not easy to catch a commercial vehicle down to this place from town. Most of the staff still live in town and you can see that our housing project has not gotten to the stage where people will occupy them", he explained.
The hospital chief, therefore, urged the Committee to assist the hospital by ensuring appropriation of adequate funds for its projects, adding that more funds were needed for the payment of the 22 per cent wage increase, for which 12 months arrears were still outstanding in addition to the arrears of professional allowances to the workers.
In his response, Anosike said: "On a serious note, we have to declare state of emergency in the health sector. It is so bad that everybody is working towards it. The President is working towards that. Everybody is bitter with what we met in our health institutions. That is why you see us leaving our offices. We left Ilorin yesterday and we are here today. We have gone to about four places (Teaching Hospitals) and from here (UNTH) we will go to Port Harcourt from there to Maiduguri to see things for ourselves," he said.
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