The large number of people taking free treatment at the State House Clinic is responsible for the lack of drugs at the hospital, Permanent Secretary State House Jala Arabi has said.
This is contained in the report on the Clinic he submitted to the House of Representatives committee looking into the alarm on the poor state of the hospital raised by Wife of the President Mrs Aisha Buhari.
The Hon. Magaji Aliyu-headed ad-hoc committee had requested the Ministry of Health and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to provide detailed account of the State House Clinic.
Part of the report said: “The State House reached an agreement with HMOs with regard to the remittance of all NHIS payments in respect of State House Staff whose NHIS point is the State House Medical Centre..
“ It is instructive, however to note that whereas almost 80% of the personnel serving in the State House access medical services at the State House Medical Centre, only about 20% of them selected the medical Centre as their NHIS point.
“The implication of the foregoing is that, whereas they access free medical services at the Centre, their respective NHIS contributions go to those medical facilities they selected as their providers, even though they do not go there for any medical service. This explains the quick depletion of the drugs and other consumables due to the very high number of patients being attached.”
The members expressed concern over the report presented by Arabi that out of 329 personnel working in the State House Clinic, 47 non-core medical personnel for several years illegally collected call-duty allowances.
According to him, some doctors sponsored by the State House on Residency Programmes (usually 2 years), got their call duty allowances paid “even though they are no longer performing call duties at the medical Centre.”
The report added: “Sadly, some of them were discovered to have spent close to 7 years doing residency, with many changing institutions, as they fail to qualify. In view of the fact that paying doctors on sponsored Training programmed call duty allowance was considered unearned allowances.
” IPPIS (OAGF) was advised to cease paying them such allowances pending their return to duty from training. This has however become controversial and we are reviewing with the assistance of the Federal Ministry of Health who are guiding us appropriately,” Arabi said.
He said despite their failure to enlist on the State House Clinic’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), 80 per cent of the State House workers and their spouses are enjoying free medical services, at the expense of the government
At the interactive session were Ismaila Kawu, Senior Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (House); Ita Enang, Speciak Adviser to the President on Ntional Assembly Matters (Senate); Osagie Ehanire, Minister of State for Health and representatives of Muhammad Bello, FCT Minister, held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.
Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire and the FCT Health Secretary, Mrs Amanda Pam told the committee that the state House clinic is not directly under the Ministry of Health and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) admnistration.
Aliyu said: “The summary of the whole thing is that the clinic is just there, it is not supervised and is not under anybody.
“The Ministry of Health and FCT said they are not aware, meaning the hospital is just there.. I want all information on the clinic. We can’t afford to risk the life of Mr. President and somebody should be responsible.”
Ehanire said: “The State House Clinic is not directly under my ministry. I don’t know who is directly in-charge. I didn’t say that it is not under anybody, may be under the FCT.
“It is not unusual that the clinic is not under the ministry, this is also applicable in some states. This is what we met on ground.
“I am not aware of the status of the training of the doctors practicing in the clinic. The choice of who heads the clinic lies on the President. It is the prerogative of the President.”
He added: the Clinic is supposed to be operated along regular hospitals.
|The Nation
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