Wife of Nigeria’s President,Aisha Buhari has literally bombed the State House Clinic,Abuja accusing the managers of misplaced priorities.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of a two day meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition, RMNCAH+N organized by her Future Assured pet project, Aisha disclosed her recent discovery that the X-ray machine at the State House Clinic was not working.
She said , “Before I commence my speech, I will like to (be) realistic, to say a few words concerning health in Nigeria and health delivery system in Nigeria.
“It is very, very, very poor, sorry to say that. I am happy the MD of Aso Clinic is here, is he around? Dr. Munir (Dr. Hussain Munir, consultant cardiologist and the chief medical director at state house medical centre) or his representative? Ok he is around.
“Ok Dr. Munir I’m happy you are here. As you are all aware for the last six months, Nigeria wasn’t stable because my husband’s(President Muhammadu Buhari’s) ill health, we thank God he is fully recovered now.
“If somebody like Mr. President can spend several months outside Nigeria, then you wonder what will happen to a common man on the street in Nigeria.
“Few weeks ago I was sick as well, they advised me to take the first flight out to London. I refused to go. I said I must be treated in Nigeria because there is a budget for an assigned clinic to take care of us.
“If the budget is N100 million, we need to know how the budget is spent. Along the line I insisted they call Aso Clinic to find out if the X-ray machine is working. They said it is not working. They didn’t know I am the one that was supposed to be in that hospital at that very time (sic).
“I had to go to a hospital that was established by foreigners in and out 100 percent. What does that mean?
Aisha continued,“So I think is high time for us to do the right thing. If something like this can happen to me, no need for me to ask the governors’ wives what is happening in their states. This is Abuja and this is the highest seat of government, and this is presidential villa. One of the speakers has already said we have very good policies in Nigeria. In fact, we have the best policies in Africa. Yes of course, we have but the implementation has been the problem.
“So we need to change our mindset and do the right thing. I’m sure Dr. Munir will not like me saying this but I have to say it out. As the Chief Medical Director, there are a lot of constructions going on in this hospital but there is no single syringe there.What does that mean? Who will use the building? We have to be good in reasoning. You are building new building and there is no equipment, no consumables in the hospital and the construction is still going on.
It could be recalled that Buhari’s daughter,Zahra recently took to her instagram handle @mrs_zmbi to slam the lack of syringes and all at the clinic.Zahra urged the Permanent Secretary in the State House,Mr Jalal Arabi to explain the lack of drugs.
She asked “why isn’t there simple paracetamol, gloves, syringes..why do the patients/staff have to buy what they need in state house clinic?
“More than N3 billion budgeted for state house clinic and the workers there don’t have equipment to work with? Why?
#statehousepermsecplsanswer
“Where is the money going to? Medication only stock once since the beginning of the year? Why?”
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, State House, Mr Jalal Arabi has disclosed that the government was set to commercialize the State House Medical Centre.
He said,”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.
According to Arabi the coming reform will make the Centre NHIS complaint as the Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) or primary health provider will eventually be 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.
Arabi also said any insinuation of fraud at the clinic is untrue. “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,” he said.
He added,”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”.
