...Many doctors and nurses are leaving the country for better opportunities abroad; there's also the issue of getting approval for recruitment to close the gaps…
The House of Committee on Health Institutions of the 10th National Assembly lamented the mass exodus of health professionals to seek for better opportunities abroad and the delay in approval for recruitment to cover the gaps in Nigerian tertiary health institutions.
The Committee led by the chairman, Hon Amos Gomna Magaji, was at Modibbo Adama University Teaching Hospital, MAUTH Yola, Adamawa state for the oversight function to ensure that all capital projects, facility capacity, manpower and programmes run, meet the required standards.
The Committee, after hours of scrutinising relevant documents and inspection of the facility, certified MAUTH as one among the tertiary institutions that met the clinical standards in a clean and hygienic environment with horticultural aesthetic in tune with the health and well-being of the society.
The Committee chairman explained that the visit was not meant to witch-hunt but to accomplish the oversight function of the legislature, which is also a plus to the tertiary health institutions.
He said, "the National Assembly has three cardinal responsibilities, namely, to appropriate funds, then the oversight component - to check whether or not the funds appropriated are judiciously utilised in addition to finding out areas requiring further intervention - and the third being to make laws".
Hon Magaji said the visited shouldn't be in any better time than now that the country is approaching the budget period.
Asked whether the Committee was satisfied with the manpower on ground, Magaji said even the hospital is not satisfied with her manpower that is grossly inadequate.
"We have the issue of manpower. We're faced with the challenge of JAPA; many doctors are not available, many nurses are leaving and there's also the issue of delay in getting approval from the government agencies that have the responsibility for recruitment to close the gaps".
The Chief Medical Director of the Teaching Hospital, Prof Adamu Bakari Girei, represented by the CMAC, Dr Ahmadu Baba Usman who earlier revealed that the hospital grew from a little over one hundred bed capacity when it was first established as a Federal Medical Centre to 720 bed capacity in its present status as a Teaching Hospital and still counting, commended the Committee for their assignments.
The CMD said the hospital would need further intervention in waterworks, roadworks, culverts and drainages among other facility interventions that would require the blessings of the National Assembly..
Highlight of the oversight visit was the facility tour where the Committee inspected Residents Doctors quarter, psychiatric block, College of Nursing and Midwifery of the hospital, ENT and Ophthalmology Complex, female and male surgical wards, theatres and ongoing construction of Wellness area, among others.
The Committee members in company of the chairman, include Hon. James Barka, Hon. David Umar, Clerk of the House Akilu Abbas and Head of Project Monitoring Engr. Seth Bakut
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