The visiting members of the House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions have made a case for the Teaching Hospitals of Nguru, Azare, Rasheed Shekoni Federal University Teaching Hospital, Dutse and the Birnin-Kudu Federal Medical Centre in areas of shortage of manpower, inadequate funding and other predicaments.
The committee also pledged to bridge the gap to improve quality service delivery. Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Amos Gomna Magaji, Representing Zangon- Kataf- Jaba Federal Constituency in Kaduna state, informed that the committee was in the state to assess most of the problems confronting the health Institutions and look at their budget commitments and implementation to address most of the challenges.
Speaking further on their mission to Jigawa State, Hon. Gomna said: “Our mission is to oversite the hospitals, take a stock on their budgetary expenditure and implementations as well identify their constraints with a view to solving them for improved service delivery.
According to Hon. Amos Gomna, there was a need for the federal government to prioritize its health Institutions, meet their needs adequately in terms of funding, availability of assorted medications and qualify medical personnel who will man specific departments in most of the Teaching Hospitals.
On the issue of shortage of manpower, the lawmaker wondered why health institutions should seek a waiver for employment and an arm of a state government will keep it for many months without responding to it; a situation he said, the committee frowned on and “we will say no to such abnormal behaviour and that shall never happen in this country again”, he said.
Adding: “For example, this hospital – Rasheed Shekoni Federal University Teaching Hospital, Dutse, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed for over three years to transfer the staff of the hospital to federal government facility but bureaucracy has played it down
“We will make sure that their employment is regularized. This is because the National Assembly has budgeted money for the hospitals overhead cost, only that we don’t know what actually the problem was.”
During the oversite visit of the eight-member health committee, the Managing Directors of the two health institutions – Dr. Adamu Abdullahi Atterwamie of the Birnin-Kudu Federal Medical Centre and his counterpart at Rasheed Shekoni Federal University Teaching Hospitals, Dutse, have made presentations highlighting their 2023 budget commitments in various fields, and raising their constraints for a way forward.
The M.D, Birnin- Kudu Federal Medical Centre reiterated that the Management of the hospital will continue to appreciate the effort being made by the National Assembly for the increase in the needed clinical staff to provide needed services for Nigerians.
On challenges, Dr. Attawame expressed huge liability bedeviling Birnin-Kudu Federal Medical Centre including payment of outsourced services for the period of 2017 to 2021.
He informed that the hospital has no internal road networking except the one-km road constructed by the Federal Ministry of Works; shortage of manpower and outdated operational equipment inherited since the inception of the hospital during the defunct Northern Regional Government.
