The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa weekend in Lagos said the Federal Government is committed to funding Tertiary Health Institutions across the country even as he promised comprehensive healthcare services to every Nigerian citizen.
Alausa who spoke at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi Lagos, NOHIL, while on an oversight visit to all Federal government-owned health institutions in Lagos to assess the state of their facilities, explained that government tertiary hospitals were safe and equipped to deliver top-notch healthcare services to Nigerians.
The minister who said part of his visit was to know what the institutions are doing well, know their challenges, and how better they can be supported to ensure better healthcare outcomes for citizens affirmed that services in most of the hospitals visited can be compared to anywhere in the western world.
“As part of the leadership in the Ministry of Health, we are committed to significantly funding these teaching hospitals, and beyond funding, we will also be working with the sub-national government, and the various state governments to help them improve the capacity and improve the care they continue to deliver to our citizens.
“We will improve healthcare governance by strengthening the healthcare system, making everyone more accountable. We will improve our population’s health outcomes. We will unlock the value chain of our healthcare sector so that we can be able to create jobs for the young citizens of this country and then we will beginning to look at health beyond physical security, health and social security, and national security. So several of the priority areas of the MD aligned fit well into these four priority areas.
Describing NOHIL as a model that has set a high pace in service delivery, he said the ministry will replicate what he has seen in the hospital in several of the nation’s teaching hospitals. “So, I’m very happy with what we’ve seen here.”
Alausa said Nigerians should expect after the end of his tour, excellent healthcare delivery as President Bola Tinubu had mandated them to develop, build and revitalize the healthcare delivery system in Nigeria as well as provide comprehensive care to each citizen of the country.
Reacting to the long list of appeals and challenges listed by the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Mustapha Alimi, he said: “Other Medical Directors have challenges ranging from energy, human resource of health, more funding, more infrastructure, building capacity and I have discussed every one of these challenges. We will work assiduously to get everything resolved. The leadership and the Ministry of Health are committed to supporting all our medical directors and the chief medical director of all our federal teaching.
Earlier, the Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr Mustapha Alimi lamented the state of the facility, saying some wards are as old as 60 to 80 years.
Noting that the institution’s vision was to provide excellent and comprehensive health care, he called on the federal government to assist them in repairing their oxygen plant which has been down for over 4 weeks.
Alimi said the cost of providing oxygen to the hospital every week was between one million naira and N1.1 million while the cost of repairing it is N40 million.
“N40 million is in the midst of what we need to do. If we remove it from our IGR, it will shake it significantly. So we are appealing to you, Honourable Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, to help us take a very urgent look at it. If we wait for 40 weeks, we will have spent the 40 million Naira and we will still not have a new oxygen supply.”
Alimi further lamented that the hospital was short staff with 310 staff and the bulk of them are in the nursing department, amongst doctors, physiotherapists, pharmacists, and laboratory scientists.
He said he applied for a waiver to the health service around February and March, early this year but the waiver is yet to be released.
Noting that people are still leaving because of circumstances that are beyond their control, he said the waiver should be released quickly before it becomes a situation where people will suffer negative feedback, and people will start running because they are being overwhelmed.
“After our waiver is released, we are hoping that they can give us a one-to-one replacement, so that for every person that goes, we are authorised to replace, a nurse by a nurse, a pharmacist by a pharmacist, a doctor by a doctor, a physiotherapist by a physiotherapist.
“Our mission is to provide effective, qualitative, affordable, and specialized health care. And serve as an advocacy centre for the services that we render to the public.
Alimi said the hospital offers several public health services including spine services, paediatric services, ophthalmology services, complex trauma, arthroscopy, and sports medicine among others.
“We are hoping that very soon cancer surgery will join and in severe, intensive care and pain management services. We have robust clinicians who provide cardiology and endocrinology services. Our new diagnostic services are also not to be pushed to service.
“Our burn centre is also old. It needs to be brought to the state-of-the-art modern bomb management solution. Our histopathology even though our molecular lab is new, our histopathology unit is old. “In a world where cancer services are becoming very important, we need to have a histopathology unit.
Unfortunately, we have the equipment, but we don’t have the appropriate space to put them.” He said for every two patients that come in here, at least one will pass through the histopathology department.
“The histopathology department is a very big unit. And you cannot but appreciate what they do, their contributions to the hospital services of our patients. I will take it that our team needs facilities. He also appealed to the federal government to provide accommodation for staff of the hospital “The average person that works in this institution lives outside the outskirts of this locality. And currently, transportation is not a challenge. If we can have a place where they can reside from Monday to Friday, and then they go home again, no matter how small the place is, I’m sure that will go a long way to help.”
He disclosed that the hospital has some flats that were purchased from the Lagos State government but the State has taken over those buildings but has refused to service those buildings. Those buildings are not in a very nice state, I know you have a relationship with the Lagos State government. We would appreciate renovation.
He further disclosed that the hospital pays 17.2 million Naira monthly to the telecommunications company, adding that, with nine generators, the maintenance cost is about two to five million Naira monthly. “We also consume diesel of between seven and 17million. For every 40 hours of power failure that we have, we consume 5,000 to 7,000 tons of diesel. The current diesel price is about N1,000.
“Currently, we have solar panels on the casualty. We have solar panels in the lab. The solar panels on A, B, and D-1 are already in the hospital and about to be installed so that at least patients can have light and sun in the evenings. We have a 10-step task plan, but none has come to fruition.”
