Obsolete health facilities: Buhari approves N21bn for 14-bed space presidential hospital
…hospital downgraded to clinic with obsolete facilities
By Uthman Salami
President Muham madu Buhari has approved N21bn for the construction and equipment of a 14-bed space of a proposed presidential hospital despite state of public health sector facilities.
In reaction to controversy over the importance attached to the approval of such huge amount, the Special Adviser,Media and Publicity to the President, Mr Femi Adesina explained that the approval became necessary because the hospital has been downgraded to ordinary clinic
This presidential approval was made known by the permanent Secretary State House, Mr. Umar Tijjani.
The Permanent Secretary State House, while presenting a N40 billion naira budget proposal for the statehouse to the members of the Senate committee on Federal Character, explained that the Presidential hospital was conceived in 2012 by the previous administration and will be open to people from other African countries for medical treatment.
He said further: “I would like to say that the State House needs quite a formidable level of support and improvement in funding, especially because we are dealing with phasing out a lot of infrastructure that have come to the end of their lifespan.”
Umar lamented the non-release of full budgetary allocation to the Villa, saying some of the facilities at the seat of power have become obsolete.
The clinic will have a laboratory, healing garden, pharmacy, and x-ray facility, as well as an operating theatre, executive suite, and isolation areas.
He further said most of the preliminary work has been concluded and a Certificate of No Objection has been sought from the Bureau of Public Procurement.
However, the Nigerian public health sector has lately been battling with several challenges especially in the areas of braindrain.
Investigation by Nigerian NewsDirect revealed that other public officials go abroad for medical treatment when Nigerian hospitals, including the National Hospital in Abuja, became morgues inspite of the President Buhari’s promise that he would put an end to “medical tourism,” by public officials.
According to a survey compiled by a Nigerian print media, the president had embarked on not less than 200 non-consecutive days medical trips to UK, since he took office in May 2015.
Not long ago, the National Association of Resident Doctors downtooled over what they described as delayed payment of their salaries.
NARD had begun their industrial actions August 2 to protest against the non-payment of salaries and allowances — a recurrent problem in Nigeria’s healthcare sector.
The NARD said, resident doctors, medical school graduates training as specialists who play a major role on emergency wards, would return to work on Wednesday, after some of the payments had been made.
But it called on the Federal and State Governments to urgently address outstanding issues, such as what it said was a failure to pay benefits to the relatives of doctors who had died of COVID-19 after caring for patients affected by the virus.
The union finally called off its strike on October 4, 2021.
