The Minister of State for Health, Mr. Osagie Ehanire, was allegedly booed by Doctors, Nurses and other staff of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, following his inability to squarely address some very pressing issues militating against the well being of the staff and their conducive working environment.
The Minister who was at FMC, Asaba, last week Friday to commission the Accident and Emergency Building and the newly renovated Utility Block of the hospital disappointed the staffers of the hospital after he allegedly ignored all their plights and failure address the challenges bedevilling the hospital as presented to him by the Medical Director (MD), of the hospital during his speech.
The Minister, HardReporters correspondent gathered, dived out of the issues on raised and went telling stories of how Nigeria went into recession and what the President
Mohammadu Buhari-led government was doing and at this junction, the visibly aggrieved staffers roared to register their displeasure.
It was learnt that it took the effort of an aide to the minister to put him on the right track before he could make some few unconvincing comments on some of the issues raised by the staff of the hospital.
Meanwhile, the Medical Director (MD) of FMC Asaba, Mr. Victor Osiatuma had while delivering his speech at the occasion lamented the incessant strikes, capital subvention, the inability to carry out
any capital project or meet outstanding contractual obligations throughout the year in the hospital.
The MD also bemoaned the inability to complete the intensive care unit/renal dialysis/physiotherapy departments contracts awarded in 2011 due to none allocation of funds in the 2015/2016 appropriation bill lamenting that the projects did not also featured in capital projects.
According to the FMC boss, the general outpatient otherwise known as the
specialists, consultant outpatient building awarded in 2013 is also lying fallow due to none allocation of funds even in 2017 budget for the completion, noting that management were compelled to occupy the building partially due to space constraints.
Mr. Osiatuma also told the minister that the transport system of the hospital is in a very horrible situation saying that “The hospital has only few vehicles in its fleet which are over 8 years old. As at the moment, the hospital does not have very good and befitting utility vehicles to travel and carry out official duties while the cost
of repairing old vehicles is no longer economical.” the MD lamented.
Continuing, the MD noted that the hospital is currently been over stretched by the need to provide 24 hours electricity to carry out operations, maintain heavy equipment, provide security and for convenience of
patients and staff.
“This is taking a heavy load on the generating plant not to talk of the high cost of dessel. BEDC is unable to satisfy our demands” disclosing that sometimes last year, management approached BEDC to hook the hospital to a dedicated line, adding that “Eventually this has been done but it has not solved the problem, sometimes we have about 14 hour supply a day but this come with its own challenges as the electricity bills has gone up astronomically. Since November, we now have to pay up to N1 million weekly as BEDC bills and this is telly heavily on the hospital.
“There are large areas of the hospital that need to be tarred to ease the transportation of patients, this portion of earth road is always waterlog during the raining season. The current maternity complex is evidently inadequate for the upsurge of the attendance of pregnant women at clinics and also in obstetrics cases. There is urgent need to build a new and appropriate obstetrics and gynaecology complex. This project has been a common feature in our project proposal but funds has not been provided for its execution.
“At our anti-netal clinics we see over a 1000 patients but at the time of delivery, it is disappointing that not more than 200 out of this number are able to deliver here because of the size of our labour ward. We have about 10 delivery beds. Majority of consultants and senior staff of this hospital do not have adequate office accommodation, this situation has hampered productivity and create restiveness amongst staff.” Osiatuma concluded.
