The Nation Newspaper

Tag: CMD

  • Doctors sue FMC Umuahia CMD

    Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, the Abia State capital, has sued the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Chuku Abali.

    The doctors said the suit, filed at the National Industrial Court, Enugu, became unavoidable as the CMD had allegedly failed to address basic issues affecting their welfare and facilities.

    They said he planned to sack some of them.

    The suit, which was yet to be fixed for hearing, has NARD, FMC Umuahia President, Dr Orji Emeka Innocent and other executive members as plaintiffs.

    The doctors are seeking an order to make the CMD “desist from interfering with their residency programme”.

    “To address forthwith all the issues relating to the remuneration owed either by immediate payment or a concrete arrangement backed with sincere commitment.”

     

  • Disquiet in CMD over debt, premature retirement of directors

    Disquiet in CMD over debt, premature retirement of directors

    All is not well at the Centre for Management Development (CMD) at Shangisha, a Lagos suburb. The employees and the director-general are locked in allegations and counter-allegations of high-handedness and mismanagement. ADEBISI ONANUGA and JIDE BABALOLA write on the cold war rocking the centre 

    SINCE its establishment in 2004, the Centre for Management Development (CMD) has lived up to expectation in the training of public servants. The centre has been exceptional in the conduct of research for public and corporate entities, including educational institutions. It has also served as a think-tank to the government.
    But, all those feats are being eroded. The centre, which used to be the pride of the country, has in the last six years, been faced with a myriad of problems. It is barely able to meet its primary mandate of staff training, development and research. In recent times, its reputation has been called to question –– no thanks to low patronage.
    The CMD workers have become demoralised, losing confidence in the style of administration of its Director-General, Dr. Kabir Kabo Usman, who they have accused of high-handedness in running the centre since he came on board in January 2010.
    They alleged that the director-general does not share in the dream of the centre’s founding fathers of making it a foremost research institute in the country.
    Usman, who holds a doctorate degree in Chemistry, was named as the centre’s director-general by the former National Planning Minister Dr Shamsudeen Usman under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
    The debt profile of the centre to staff and contractors, which allegedly rose under him, has not received adequate attention.
    Aside from the debt issues, there are staff recruitment and promotion matters and forceful retirement of directors, among other allegations. He was also alleged to have commenced sales of undeveloped part of the Centre’s sprawling property in Shangisha, a Lagos suburb, off the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, without the approval of the head of the supervising ministry and the Federal Government.
    On his assumption of duty seven years ago, Usman was alleged to have inherited N950 million, some foreign currencies (about N400, 000,000) from Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) and some other organisations. The centre, in addition, generated N1.2 billion from the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), which is inclusive of the allocation for ICT platform, yet to become operational till date.
    Despite the huge budgetary allocation and funds from other sources, the CMD is believed to be heavily indebted, contrary to what obtained prior to Usman’s resumption in 2010.
    Sources close to the centre blamed the development on constant changing of budget templates by the management. The CMD is said to be indebted to its guest house to the tune of N20 million for foods served participants who fully paid their fees for its programmes. About N5.5 million is said to be outstanding on NDDC workshop and N1.5 million on that of the NAPTIN. The employees blamed it all on poor management and non-transparent administration.
    It was learnt that the CMD is indebted to the staff thrift and cooperative society as deductions from workers’ salaries from October to December, last year, estimated to be about N16 million monthly, as well as the Pay As You Go (PAYE) for the Lagos State government, have not been remitted.
    The directors kicked against the introduction of e-budgeting by the director-general which they described as problematic and time-wasting and found to be responsible for undue delay of workshop delivery. Since records of budgets are not available in the accounts department, the e-budgeting was in addition considered as being capable of creating grounds for fraudulent activities. Sources said there were always discrepancies in what the account staff would tell them was approved as budgetary allocation for any particular department and would finally be sent to coordinators of workshops, who would insist on hard copy budgeting. Another issue raised against e-budgeting by those meant to use it is that of absence of internet facility as the one available has broken down.
    Staff recruitment, promotion and and retirement is another issue infuriating the workers. Sources alleged that the director-general had been recruiting staff into the centre without recourse to civil service rules and reference to the centre’s mandate. Between January 2010 to date, staff strength is said to have grown from 180 four years ago to 400, with no facility to work, thereby rendering the exercise unjustifiable such that workers are calling for a review of all appointments since 2010 till date.
    It was gathered that director-general made career progression impossible by forcing directors to proceed on compulsory retirement once on attainment of 60 years of age or 35 years in service while trying to build successor by recruiting new hands into sensitive positions.
    Between 2013 and 2016, three directors were asked to proceed on retirement, contrary to the directive from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation (HoCSF) that Research Academic staff are only to go on retirement on attainment of 65 years of age.
    The directors, in their separate petitions to the HoCSF, argued that the directive of the director-general did not follow the rules and was contrary to the directives of the HoCSF on 65 years retirement age for the core academic and research staff consequent of which they protest their retirement by petitioning the office of the HCSF.
    The directive of the DG, it was learnt, was also at variance with the recognition accorded the academic staff of the centre under the Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS) and in compliance with circulars from the office of the Head of Service of the Federation.
    Besides this, Sections 1, 8(2) and (3) and Section 16 of the NCMD Act stipulate that the director and other officers of the centre shall enjoy separate scale remuneration, tenure and conditions of service, which are not necessarily fully subject to the public service rules.
    The Nation learnt that Usman, to justify his action, sought clarification on four occasions on the age for retirement of the academic and research staff and on whether the CMD enjoys a research status. The director-general, who was reportedly told by the office of the HoCSF to implement the 65 years of age policy and to recall the retired directors, ignored the directives.
    The directives were contained in various letters addressed to the director-general, all titled; “Re: Non-Implementation of 65 years by CMD management” and signed by Director, Organisation Design and Development, Mr. Kehinde Adeyemi for the HoCSF.
    One of such responses from the HoCSF’s office, signed by Director, Establishments and Industrial Relations, Mr G.C. Ukomadu, , in particular, stated in part: “I am directed to refer to your letter Ref. No. CMD/HRM/348 dated June 28, 2012 and to state that Section 6(2) (d)(e) mandate your centre to carry out research activities.
    “Be that as it may, the Research Academic Staff of the Centre shall retire from service on attainment of 65 years in accordance with Section 13.4 of the approved Condition of Service for Federal Research Institutes, College of Agriculture and Allied Institutions. The rule states in part that Research Academic cadre staff may continue until they attain 65 years of age as obtained in Nigerian universities.”
    The various directives from the HoCSF notwithstanding, the director-general again in 2015 directed two directors of the centre to proceed on retirement.
    The refusal to implement the mandatory retirement age policy by the director-general, The Nation learnt, elicited a directive from the vice president’s office that a query should be issued to him by the office of the HoCSF on July 28, 2015.
    Titled “Re: Critical Issues at the Centre for Management Development” and signed by the Permanent Secretary (SPSO), Dr. A.K. Muhammad for HoCSF, it questioned the director-general’s refusal to comply with various directives on the applicability of the 65 years retirement age to academic staff; the purported sales of land belonging to the CMD in Lagos.
    It directed the CMD chief to stop further sale of the land until the resolution of the matter. He was also asked to forward a presentation on the sale of the land to the HoCSF and comply with the retirement age policy.
    Despite the query, it was learnt, Usman did not recall the directors from compulsory retirement. The development attracted a warning on March 16, 2016, and titled: “Directive for immediate implementation of 65 years Retirement age at CMD” to be issued to him before the directors were recalled in April 2016.
    The query, signed by the Permanent Secretary (CMO), Innocent K. Ogbonnaya for the HoCSF, stated in part: “Your failure to comply with the directives of the HoCSF on the matter is considered an affront to the present administration.”
    Warning the director-general to desist forthwith, the query said “as further acts of disregard to government directives on the subject shall be dealt with appropriately.”
    It was learnt that the director-general allegedly misrepresented the facts in a memo about the NCMD and CMD status to the Budget & National Planning Minister.

    DG’s aide: they’re crying wolf where there is none

    REACTING to the weighty allegations through his media aide, Dr. Kabiru Kabo, the CMD director-general dismissed insinuations that the centre was riddled with crises.
    Kabo, who is Usman’s Special Adviser (Media), told The Nation that there was now row between the CMD management and his principal.
    On the centre’s debt profile, Kabo said there was no arbitrariness in financial transactions, including payments to personnel, other government officials and contractors, but done in conformity with directives and guidelines for the nation’s public service or as established by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
    “Union dues, taxes and whatever deductions are paid into proper accounts accordingly. Whatever deductions are made from salaries are paid directly to the appropriate accounts”, he said.
    Denying knowledge of anyone being promoted three times at the centre within a year, Kabo said: “It is outrageous and incredible. Those making the allegation should please give us the name of such a person.”
    Asked if the promotion has anything to do with some succession battle, he said: “one cannot say that it is one of those usual battles for succession because the director-general is not leaving now. He has about two years more to preside over the affairs of CMD and leave an indelible footprint that propaganda cannot erase.”
    On the management’s alleged refusal to implement the mandatory retirement policy, he insisted that the centre was neither a research institute, nor in the category of CRIN, NIIA, ASCON and NISER as being claimed. According to him, the issue of whether the centre was a research institute or not, had been settled long ago.
    Kabo said: “The Head of Service, Minister for National Planning, Office of the Vice President, all say that CMD is not a research institute. There are official documents about this decision from those offices. The man who was said to have retired about two years ago had been fighting and saying that he ought not to have retired at 60 years but should stay till 65.
    “He served as a director for eight years and you know that there was a rule during the Yar’Adua/ Goodluck Jonathan era that once you have remained in the position of director for eight years, you have to go. So, the man left two years ago.
    “However, the Buhari administration reviewed the policy last year and he now says he wants to benefit from it. So, does it mean that all those who retired in similar situations as his over the past 20 now have to come back?
    “There is also somebody who is due to retire by July this year. As I told you earlier, the director-general came to Nigeria after about 25 years of working in the United Kingdom (UK).
    “As for the person said to have been promoted three times in one year, the director0general is asking that the faceless petitioners should please mention his name, his particulars as well as the date, or months he was promoted. There is absolutely nothing like that. They should make photocopies of his promotion documents available to all Nigerians if there is anything like that.”
    Usman’s spokesman denied any sale of CMD landed property at Shangisga, describing the allegation as a misrepresentation of facts. He said what his principal was based on a directive of the Federal Execvutive Council (FEC).
    He said: “It is possible that those people mistook the commercialisation of CMD property in Shangisha as an attempt to sell it. The director-general of CMD effected the purchase of a building here in Abuja at a cost less than N400 million despite the insinuations from some quarters and the property is now estimated to be worth more than N2 billion. There was a FEC directive that he should relocate from Lagos to Abuja and to commercialise the CMD property at Shangisha.
    “This is because at the Shangisha property, there are chalets which you can pay for and use. It is outsourced. Several companies and individuals who have workshops, seminars and other events have been going there to hire the facilities.
    “The director-general used CMD funds to invest in property that is now worth about N2 billion. The property in Shangisha generates funds for CMD. Do you know that this matter was discussed at the FEC meeting and they commended the CMD?”
    He said that the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari no longer gives free funds to agencies. So, many have to look inward to fend for some of their needs.
    Defending Usman as a man of integrity who returned after a 25-year sojourn in the UK to help move the nation forward, Kabo said: “They invited him to come and rescue that place (CMD). He was a key contributor to Vision 20:20. He was a prime mover of Nigerians in the Diaspora idea. He was Technical Adviser to Aja Nwachukwu during the Yar’Adua administration.
    “They had moved him from one place to another because it was deemed that he has something to offer and he has served in one capacity or the other under three successive Presidents of Nigeria – Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and President Buhari.
    “Whatever national assignment he was given, he had proven to be equal to the task but I can assure you that it was probably impossible for him not to have stepped on some few toes.”
    But, career CMD staff members are calling for the intervention of the HoSCF in the matter and reverse the directive which stripped the centre of its research institution status and think-tank organisation to the government, restating their wish to serve in the centre as academic and research personnel without being forced on early retirement.
    According to them, the centre was established a research centre and that a mere circular may not be able to change the Act establishing NCMD, the approved Conditions of Service of Research and Allied Institutions and the nomenclature of their salary structure except through a National Assembly legislation.

  • CMD hails EKSUTH management

    CMD hails EKSUTH management

    The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado-Ekiti, Dr. Kolawole Ogundipe, has hailed the hospital’s management for making it a centre of excellence.

    He praised Governor Ayodele Fayose for supporting the hospital since he assumed office.

    Ogundipe, who spoke at the kick-off of the Histopathology Archives of the Department of Anatomy Pathology, noted that the governor’s support had led to the approval to build an ultra-modern mortuary through public private partnership (PPP).

    The CMD said the various success stories recorded by the Anatomy Pathology Department were in line with the vision of the teaching hospital’s management to make it the preferred referral centre for qualitative, affordable health care, ethical medical research and training.

    He noted that Anatomy Pathology and Surgery departments were like Siamese twins, which cannot function without each other.

    Ogundipe said the department occupied a pride of place among similar departments of Histopathology of teaching hospitals in the country because it boast modern equipment which were not available in some first generation teaching hospitals.

    The Head of Anatomy Pathology Department Dr. Abidemi Omonisi said setting up an archive in the department was imperative because it would be useful for keeping records of histopathology reports.

  • I didn’t kill them, says CMD

    •’Protest politically motivated’

    The Chief Medical Director of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti (FETHI), Dr. Lawrence Majekodunmi Ayodele, has described as “baseless, unfounded, untrue and politically motivated” allegations that he masterminded the accident that killed six doctors on Sunday.

    Ayodele, speaking from Sokoto at the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), said it stands logic on the head to accuse him of causing the accident that killed three doctors who are staff members of his hospital.

    Workers under the auspices of Senior Staff Association (SSA) protested at FETHI on Monday.

    They accused Ayodele of carrying out rituals in a bid to keep his seat.

    The FETHI CMD, in a telephone chat with reporters yesterday, advised the workers not to allow themselves to be used for “selfish and political reasons”, adding that linking him with the death of the doctors shows the level of desperation of some individuals in their bid to blackmail him.

    Ayodele described himself as a God-fearing person who would not wish a fellow human harm.

    He said he was in mourning and that the workers’ allegation aggravated his pains.

    Ayodele said: “It marvels me that people could link me to a death that happened in an auto crash in a modern world like this. This is very unfortunate and barbaric because the doctors of other hospitals were involved in this sad incident.

    “Should we now conclude that those who died in EKSUTH and Ekiti State Hospitals’ Management Board were killed by my colleague, Dr Kolawole Ogundipe and  the state government?

    “What they want to do is to heat up the hospital and create an atmosphere of unrest which will not benefit anybody.

    “We received the tragic death of my colleagues with sadness. This is a trying period for all of us. This is a huge loss to NMA, Ekiti State and Nigeria at large. I pray that the good Lord will give all of us the fortitude to bear the loss.”

     

     

     

  • Protest in Ekiti over doctors’ death in accident

    Protest in Ekiti over doctors’ death in accident

    •‘They’re expressing their grief’

    The death of three doctors of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti (FETHI) in an accident on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway on Sunday has sparked a protest and strike by their colleagues.

    Trooping out en masse in a protest which forced the closure of the hospital yesterday, the workers claimed that the doctors’ death on the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Lawrence Ayodele.

    They claimed that workers have been dying mysteriously during Ayodele’s tenure, accusing the CMD of carrying out rituals in the dead of the night in the hospital.

    Various unions, including the Medical Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Senior Staff Association (SSA), National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), locked the hospital’s main gate.

    They accused the CMD of using juju to kill workers in a bid to secure a second term. The protest which started at about 6am went on for several hours.

    Singing dirges, they barricaded the Ido-Otun Highway preventing human and vehicular traffic. According to the irate staff, 42 of them had died in the last 42 months

    Some of their placards read: “42 Months 42 Dead”; “No To Occultism and Ritual Actions in FETHI”; “Give Us New CMD in FETHI” and “Buhari, Save Our Souls”, among others.

    The Chairman of FETHI Branch of Senior Staff Association, Adetula Akinlolu, claimed that strange people come into the hospital at odd hours to carry out rituals.

    The strange men, according to him, claimed to be acting under the instruction of the CMD. He alleged that two of such rituals were carried out in the last two weeks which is now raising workers’ eyebrows on the latest deaths.

    Akinlolu said: “So many people have been complaining that some people do come here in the night and leave in the morning to carry out rituals but I never believed until I witnessed it about two weeks ago on April 7.

    “I was on the night shift and I went to the SSA Common Room to get a bottle of soft drink and security operatives called me that they had arrived again. I was surprised because I was not expecting anybody.

    “But when I got to the Administration Block, I saw that they had entered and locked the door from inside but I was able to hear people talking in the CMD’s office.

    “I rushed back to the gate to get some security men to follow me but they have gone on patrol but I stayed back. Around 5am, I went inside the NHIS Building to ease myself but before I returned they had all left.

    “I was able to take pictures of their number plates because they came into two Toyota Highlanders.  After they left, I rushed to the security post again to ask why they allowed those people in. The security men replied that they were acting on Ayodele’s instruction.

    “We have since discovered that whenever these strange people come here, one or two calamities happen here and this has been a recurring exercise.

    “Last week, I was told that those set of strange people came again but I was not on night duty so I could not ascertain the authenticity of the story but to my greatest surprise, I was called yesterday that some doctors were on their way to Sokoto and they had an accident and seven of them died, including three doctors, who were our members.”

    The SSA’s spokesman, Temitope Ogunleye, called on the Federal Government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the “mysterious” deaths.

    Ogunleye said: “The Federal Government should look into these happenings, these deaths are too much. Many of our members died last year, now we have three workers dead again.”

    But Ayodele, who spoke with reporters on phone, said he was in Sokoto for the Annual General Meeting and National Executive Committee meeting of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

    He said all CMDs of health institutions owned by the Federal Government are in Sokoto under the directive of the Federal Ministry of Health.

    When informed on the protest in his hospital, Ayodele said: “Grief is a normal thing this is a colossal loss and there is no way there won’t be a reaction to this but we must not allow our personal emotion to get the better of us.”

    A worker, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “The workers are angry because they are convinced that the CMD is carrying out some diabolical things killing their colleagues.

    “To me, they are justified because during the last administration where the former CMD spent eighth years and three months, we hardly recorded four deaths.

    “This present one has hardly spent four years and we have lost about 51 workers.”

    FETHI spokesman Adeboyejo Adekunle, said: “All these allegations are baseless. You cannot attribute somebody’s death to the CMD. He is not a killer. People die in workplaces all over the world.

    “Anybody can say anything but I want to assure you that he is not the one who has been killing people. The protests and allegations are the works of disgruntled elements in the hospital, who feel that if anything happens in the hospital, the CMD must be the culprit.

    “You know that some doctors from the Ekiti State Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti also died in the accident but nobody accused the CMD of murder. It is only in Ido that some workers are protesting, barricading the road and singing war songs.

    “In Ido, the situation has always been chaotic whenever a CMD is completing his tenure, there would be crisis. It happened to Ayodele’s predecessor. Some people are against his second term of the CMD. They are disgruntled elements and they are the ones behind all this.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • CMD: LUTH is not owing doctors

    Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) has repudiated the claim its resident doctors are being owed two months’ salary.

    According to its Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Chris Bode, the doctors were paid on Thursday, the day before the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) briefed the press.

    Bode said it was an error for LUTH’s ARD President  to have told Nigerians a “blatant lie.”

    He said: “For the ARD President to stand in front of the press last week Friday, February 5th,  and told Nigerians that his Association was owed two months’ salaries was a blatant lie as his association members had received their salaries from the Federal Government on the night of Thursday 4th February. We should praise this government for its gallant efforts in these trying times.”

    Bode said: ”We doctors are not the only Nigerians owed salaries in the current dispensation and we should be patient while the new government tries to sort out the financial problems confronting the nation. Our fellow Nigerians are owed several months in some states and this present situation will be swiftly resolved as soon as the payment platforms are funded, an issue we continue to take up with the appropriate government agencies. It is, therefore, advised that we should be patient for a little longer.”

    He said the delay in the payment of salaries was because of shortfalls in personnel emoluments.

    “Appeals have been made to the authorities to stop the recurring shortfalls in personnel emoluments to our institutions, and efforts are being made to convince the government to return doctors to the IPPIS payment platform which we fought hard to be removed from only two years ago. If we had been patient over the initial hiccups on the then newly-introduced IPPIS system, we might not be in the situation we now find ourselves. It is advised that the NMA leadership should make haste and exhibit purposeful leadership and maturity over our trainee doctors.”

    Bode also spoke on skipping allowance. He said the payment of “Skipping” is a national issue which the ARD and NMA should take up at various levels.

    “With over 600 resident doctors, LUTH is not in a position to pay over N50 million a month until the government provides the cash to back up the directive to pay through necessary appropriations. We all recall the futile outcome of the intense pressures applied to the wrong targets by the last ARD executives. This present exco was advised to change tactics and employ available lobbying options on this matter in this democratic dispensation.

  • UCH CMD seeks support for PPP

    University College Hospital (UCH), Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof Temitope Alonge has urged operators in the health sector to support the government by keying into its public-private partnership (PPP) programme.

    He said no country has sustained its economy by doing it alone.

    At the unveiling in Lagos of the PPP arrangement by a group of Nigerians in Japan under the auspices of the NIJP Integrated Allied Limited, Alonge said the supply of equipment in hospitals and medical centres by the firm on loan was a deal too irresistible to be ignored.

    Citing the United States, he said the health sector relies on wet leasing, adding that if the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was well run in Nigeria, it would have survived under wet leasing.  Noting that there was no need for a hospital to buy equipment, he said as professionals, their job was to provide services.

    He praised the PPP, saying that it was the best thing to have happened to UCH, as it once, on loan, through the assistance of a bank, acquired a diagnostic machine, which it paid back in five years and now making profit from it.

    ‘’My job is provide service. NIJP provides the equipment and I pay. What NIJP is bringing on board is fantastic,’’ he said. He promised to assist the firm to succeed.

    The firm’s General Manager Ochade Osekwe, an engineer, explained that under the deal, the company would make available to any willing hospital or individual, any of its products without charging for shipping, installation or maintenance.

    However, its partners would be expected to pay back by instalments of about six years. After which, they would acquire the machines.

    Osekwe, a former chairman, Nigeria-Japan Chamber of Commerce, said medicare was too important to be left in the hands of the government, urging Nigerians to avail themselves of the opportunity being provided by his organisation and that they have nothing to lose but many things to gain from the deal.

    He listed some of the machines as GE’sVoluson 730 Echo, GE’s logiq 400 Echo, digital X-ray and mammography system and video endoscopy system and hemodialysis.

  • Blame health tourism on doctors, says CMD

    Blame health tourism on doctors, says CMD

    The Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Prof. Temitope Alonge, has blamed medical tourism in Nigeria, which results in billions of Naira lost in capital flight yearly on doctors.

    Delivering a paper entitled: “The Nigerian Health Sector: Maladies and Remedies” at the inauguration of Tri-State Heart and Cardiovascular Centre, Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ilisan-Remo, in Ogun State penultimate week, Alonge alleged that some Nigerian doctors and most dishonest businessmen connive with foreign agents to send patients abroad in order to make profits.

    He said: “Medical tourism is common on our lips. But medical tourism is not the fault of the tourist. The major problem in medical tourism is doctors in Nigeria and businessmen in Nigeria. The doctors in Nigeria tell their friends abroad, ‘we cannot do it in Nigeria so I am going to ship them over to you’.

    “The Indian government established a system in UCH that is called the Pan-African Network. And they wanted me to refer patients to India. And I told them not in your life will I do that. If I can’t manage a case in UCH, that will be part of one per cent that we cannot cover. Because we have more than enough manpower; what we need to do is to strengthen the resources.

    “I have colleagues in Lagos who do nothing but medical tourism. They are certificated as doctors but what they do is to ship patients abroad. This is because, for every sixth patient you send to India or America, the money that is supposed to be used for that patient will be paid to you. So, if I send 10 patients, only eight patients will pay. The remaining five million will be paid to the doctor.”

    Alonge praised the inauguration of the state-of-the-art centre, saying it was fulfilling the specialist care that many public tertiary institutions could not fulfil because of poor funding.

    Also speaking, Chief Bisi Akande, chairman of the Tri-State Heart Foundation, which was launched at the event to raise funds for heart surgeries for the under-privileged, accepted the challenge of helping to fight heart disease because of its prevalence in the country.

    “The Tristate team are here in Nigeria on a national medical mission to a country where heart-related diseases are becoming a national disgrace. However, Tristate Cardiovascular Associates have reversed this trend; the team has performed 43 open-heart surgeries in a space of few months of operation in Nigeria,” he said.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain was also optimistic the centre would help reverse medical tourism in Nigeria.

    “If you are still grappling with the reality of what is happening here today, then, let me make it more graphic. The fact is that Nigerians no longer need to travel abroad to get treatment for heart-related diseases, many of which are correctable with surgery.

    “It also means that Nigeria’s mortality rate will improve significantly since people suffering from this kind of ailment do not need to pass through the rigours of queuing for a visa or struggling to fund the cost of travelling abroad,” he said.

    Praising the initiative, the Emir of Kano, HRH Muhammadu Sanusi II, advocated for low-interest financing for similar projects by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    “As a former governor of the CBN, I do hope that some of the initiatives started by the Central Bank in getting long-term loans to critical areas will be extended to health care and education. I do not see many of these centres being built with short term money at 20 per cent plan. And just as we tried to help agriculture and manufacturing; given the great outcome that we have from improving health care and education, the education and health care sectors should have major interventions that allow these kind of centres to be built all over the country,” he said.

    After the inauguration, Prof. Kamar Adeleke, President/CEO, Tristate Cardiovascular Associates, conducted the Emir and other dignitaries on tour of the centre. The N2 billion-worth centre has ultra-modern equipment for the CT laboratory, operating room and the wards.

    Vice-Chancellor, Babcock University, Prof. Kayode Makinde, said Chief Kessignton Adebutu, who donated the BUTH Accident and Emergency Centre, also promised to sponsor patients identified by his foundation; while the Acting Chairman, Nigerian Health Insurance Scheme, Mr Femi Agunbiade, promised to send 10 patients to the centre under the scheme; and five every month if the centre works well.

  • NMA shouldn’t hijack LUTH, says CMD

    The management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) yesterday appealed to the Lagos branch of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) not to run the hospital aground.

    The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof Chris Bode, at a briefing in Lagos, said the groups were meddling in the hospital’s affairs.

    But the NMA and resident doctors alleged that the CMD used security agents to harass  workers; that the management refused to pay the arrears of emoluments of doctors, such as examination fee, update course fee and promotion arrears, among others.

    They alleged that the hospital stopped the deducted union dues payable to doctors’ association by their members (ARD LUTH).

    But Bode debunked the allegations, saying some NMA and ARD members had personal scores to settle.

    He warned doctors to shun strikes and other activities  inimical to the hospital’s progress.

    The CMD said resident doctors need a change of attitude as “no doctor would be paid for job not done”.

    The Lagos NMA chairman, Dr Tope Ojo, advised the CMD to vacate his position because he has attained the mandatory age of retirement.

     

     

  • CMD appeals to striking doctors

    Worried by the effects of the two-month-old industrial action, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti (FETHI), Dr. Majekodunmi Ayodele, has appealed to striking resident doctors to return to work.

    Ayodele, who spoke with reporters in Ido-Ekiti said the appeal became necessary as the demands of the members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) are being looked into by the Federal Government.

    He urged the striking medics to consider the plight of patients and other members of the public who are bearing the brunt of the strike which began in May.

    FETHI chapter of ARD has joined their counterparts in other parts of the country to down tools to protest the alleged non-implementation of what they called “grade skipping” by the health institutions owned by the Federal Government.

    Doctors working in federal hospitals are up-in-arms against their CMDs for not honouring the directive of the Federal Ministry of Health on “grade skipping”.

    But, Ayodele contended that the Federal Government had not commenced the implementation of the policy as canvassed by ARD.

    According to him, the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission had explained that the modalities for the implementation have not been worked out.