Officials at the Nigeria’s Aso Rock medical centre have now decided to revitalize and then commercialise the clinic which till now provides free medical services to entitled public servants but is badly run despite billions of naira voted in past years for its operations.
The decision which the Statehouse Permanent Secretary, Jalal Arabi, announced on Wednesday came four days after President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Zahra, raised concerns over the poor state of the Medical Center.
Arabi said the State House Medical Centre (SHMC), which currently offers free medical services to patients, will be repositioned to offer qualitative and efficient services.
The centre provides medical services to the President, Vice-President and their families, aides, members of staff of the State House and other entitled public servants.
It equally serves as a training facility for house officers and other medical personnel. But there have been complaints of poor medical equipment and drugs to treat patients.
In the 2016 budget, N3.219 billion was budgeted for the State House Medical Centre for the completion of on-going work as well as procurement of drugs and other medical equipment.
But in 2017, the budget was cut drastically from N3.89 billion to N331.7 million.
In a post on her Instagram handle, @mrs_zmbi, on Saturday, Buhari’s daughter, Zahra, raised concerns over the poor state of the hospital despite the budgetary allocation.
She specifically aske the Permanent Secretary to provide answers as to why very common drugs like Paracetamol, as well as essentials, including syringes, gloves were not available, leaving patients and staff to individually source for those items.
Using the hashtag #statehousepermsecplsanswer, she asked: “why isn’t there simple Paracetamol, gloves, syringes? Why do the patients/staff have to buy what they need in a State House clinic?
“More than N3 billion budgeted for state house clinic and the workers there don’t have equipment to work with? Why? Where is the money going to? Medication only stock once since the beginning of the year? Why?”
But while clearly avoiding responding to the President’s daughter, the Permanent Secretary said the management will among other things seek the commercialisation of the Centre to boost its revenue and augment the appropriation it receives from the government in the quest for a better qualitative service.
His words, “The Centre is the only health centre in Abuja where patients are not required to pay any dime before consultation.
“In other government hospitals in Abuja, patients are required to pay for consultation, treatment, laboratory tests and others but that has not been the case with the State House Medical Centre.
“The Centre offers free services, nobody pays a kobo for hospital card, consultations or prescriptions and this has taken a toll on the subvention the Centre receives from the government.
“We have some of the best equipment in the country. For instance, to maintain the MRI and other scan machines, we spend close to N2 million monthly. Yet we do not charge a dime for those who require MRI scans in the clinic,” he said.
Arabi said the proposed reforms will ensure that those eligible to use the Centre are enrolled under the he NHIS with their Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) or primary health provider domiciled in the clinic.
“We have already created a NHIS desk at the clinic where patients will be required to authentic their profile. If their HMOs are registered in other hospitals they will be required to transfer to the Centre.
“This is another way through which we can boost revenue generation at the hospital and this has started yielding results because the stark reality is there is no free lunch anywhere,” he said.
He also tried to dismiss allegations of misappropriation and withholding of funds meant for medical supplies in the Centre.
“I know people will insinuate and give all sorts of reasons because they don’t ask but it will be foolhardy and madness for anybody in his senses to defraud a medical centre of a kobo and toying with people’s lives.
“No sane person will do that, so the truth of the matter is the hospital is being run on subvention and appropriation; if it comes we pile the drugs; but the truth is the drugs are always overwhelmed by the number of people who use the Centre, because it is not controlled,” he said.
