It was conceived to provide the best medical services and end recourse to facilities overseas but, six years after, this sprawling Kaduna State hospital has not taken off. Will Governor Nasir el-Rufai make the difference? TONY AKOWE reports
Before becoming vice president, former governor of Kaduna State Namadi Sambo had a wonderful health plan. The only trouble was that the sprawling 200-bed hospital he conceived and started building could not get off the ground; in fact, it was abandoned at completion stage. Then, in came his successor Ramalan Yero who loved the project so much he went shopping for cash to complete it. Still, the jinx remained unbroken, six years after.
Is there any hope in the administration of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai? Will the hospital see the light of day, and not only justify the huge cash forked into it but provide the services Kaduna State residents and other Nigerians crave for?
Sambo laid so much emphasis on reversing the ugly health situation in the state. One of the ways he proposed was providing a state-of-the-art medical facility in the country.
He said then that the medical facility which would be a 200-bed hospital will provide the best of medicare comparable to the ones in other countries where Nigerians rush to for medical attention.
He said he believed that the hospital will put an end to Nigerians traveling out of the country on medical tourism.
The government went to the capital market to generate part of the funds for the construction of the hospital which was later scaled up to a 300 beds.
The contract for the construction was awarded to Nahman Construction, a Lagos-based firm for an undisclosed sum in 2009.
However, with the structural work of the hospital almost completed, the complex was abandoned for almost three years. The contractors left the site and are yet to return even though the state government said it had enough money to continue with the project.
When The Nation visited the site of the project located at the Kaduna Millennium City, only the security guard and two broken-down trucks were seen, while the place has been overgrown with weeds. The walls of the hospital were already suffering from lack of maintenance while part of the roof was giving way.
Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Health, Dr. Paul Dogo told The Nation that work on the project had to stop to allow for the installation of equipment.
Investigations revealed that the hospital was initially scheduled for completion in 2012, but was delayed and rescheduled for completion in 2014 due to the inability of the state government to take delivery of some state-of-the-art equipment for the provision of comprehensive health care services to the 6.1million people in the state.
It was gathered that Mukthar Ramalan Yero government in the state went shopping for loan from the Islamic Development Bank to provide the needed facilities for the hospital and other developmental projects in the state, some of which were also to have been funded from the bond taken from the Capital Market by the state government. The bank was to provide $141 million with the breakdown including, $81 million for the construction of Transmission Mains and Service Reservoirs at the Zaria Regional Water Supply Project, $43.13 million for the provision of modern equipment at the 300 bed-space Specialist Hospital at the Millennium City and $17.32 million for the construction of four (4) new Science Secondary Schools to be located in the New Kaduna City, Koreye, Sabon Gari LGA, Rigachikun, Igabi LGA and Manchok, Kaura LGA.
While signing the loan agreement with officials of the bank in April 2014, the former governor, Mukthar Ramalan Yero said, “We have promised the people that we are going to complete all ongoing projects in the state and I want to assure the people that we have not abandoned any project and we remain committed to completing them based on availability of funds.”
Dr. Dogo told The Nation on the telephone that the El-Rufai government was committed to completing the project and has set up a Project Monitoring Unit that is saddled with the responsibility of reviewing the project with a view to completing it. According to him, the government is concerned with the poor state of health facilities in the state. According to him, it is the concern of the government that led to convening the recent health summit in the state. The government has put in motion machineries to upgrade about 255 primary health Centres across the state and has signed a memorandum of understanding with General Electric Healthcare to provide modern health facilities for the health Centres including the 300 bed hospital.
He said, “If we get it right this time, we can begin to reverse the ugly trend”.
Governor Nasir el-Rufai confirmed this in a state broadcast.
He said, “Kaduna State has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with General Electric Healthcare to modernise our primary health centres and public hospitals. Both parties have committed to identifying the specific needs of the centres and hospitals, so that modern equipment can be installed to improve the diagnosis and management of patients.
“We shall sharpen our focus on primary healthcare by full implementation of Primary Healthcare Under One Roof (PHCUOR). We have therefore sent this framework as our first Executive Bill to the State House of Assembly. This focus includes a project to fully equip at least one primary health care centre in each of the 255 wards in the state, and at least one general hospital in each of the three senatorial districts. In addition to providing better facilities, we would be recruiting more doctors, nurses, midwives and technologists for our improved hospitals”.
If el-Rufai does get the hospital working, he would have pulled off a feat his predecessors could not.
