Should hopes, plans and efforts towards offering future efficient services negate present operational performa-nce of a particular task or function?
This is the crux of the controversy trailing the near collapse of medical services at the State House Clinic, Abuja.
The clinic, which is supposed to cater for the families of the number one and number two citizens and State House staff and other presidential staff, has become a caricature of what it used to be at least under the administration of the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan.
The situation in the clinic has become worse now despite more budgetary allocation it got in 2016, at least as shown on paper under the present dispensation.
In the first budget of this administration, the State House Medical Centre under the 2016 budget was allocated N3.219 billion for the completion of ongoing projects and procurement of drugs and other medical equipment.
The facility in the 2017 Budget got its proposal reduced from N3.89 billion to N331.7 million.
The President’s daughter, Zahra, had through her Twitter account few weeks back, raised alarm over the near collapse of medical services at the clinic.
She had challenged the management to give account of the N3 billion allocated to the clinic in the Budget.
Swiftly reacting to the allegations of poor services at the clinic, the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, a fortnight ago said the clinic was being repositioned for efficient services.
In a statement by the media office, Arabi had claimed that the management is trying to commercialise the Medical Centre in the quest for a better qualitative service and boosting its revenue to augment the appropriation it receives from the government.
He said ‘‘The Centre is the only health centre in Abuja where patients are not required to pay any dime before consultation.
‘‘In other government hospitals in Abuja, patients are required to pay for consultation, treatment, laboratory tests and others but that has not been the case with the State House Medical Centre.
‘‘The Centre offers free services, nobody pays a kobo for hospital card, consultations or prescriptions and this has taken a toll on the subvention the Centre receives from the government.
‘‘We have some of the best equipment in the country. For instance, to maintain the MRI and other scan machines, we spend close to N2 million monthly. Yet we do not charge a dime for those who require MRI scans in the clinic,” the Permanent Secretary said.
Arabi had disclosed that the proposed reforms will ensure that those eligible to use the Centre are NHIS complaint with their Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) or primary health provider domiciled in the clinic.
‘‘We have already created a NHIS desk at the clinic where patients will be required to authentic their profile. If their HMOs are registered in other hospitals they will be required to transfer to the Centre.
‘‘This is another way through which we can boost revenue generation at the hospital and this has started yielding results because the stark reality is there is no free lunch anywhere,’’ he said.
Dismissing allegations of misappropriation and withholding of the clinic funds, he said ‘‘I know people will insinuate and give all sorts of reasons because they don’t ask but it will be foolhardy and madness for anybody in his senses to defraud a medical centre of a kobo and toying with people’s lives.
‘‘No sane person will do that, so the truth of the matter is the hospital is being run on subvention and appropriation; if it comes we pile the drugs; but the truth is the drugs are always overwhelmed by the number of people who use the Centre, because it is not controlled,’’ he said.
Despite his defence, the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, last week insisted that the State House Medical Centre is fast loosing its standard.
She said: “Before I commenced my speech, I will like to be realistic and say a few words concerning health and health delivery system in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian health sector is in a very, very, very poor sorry state to say the least. I am happy the CMD of Aso Clinic is here. Is he around? Dr. Munir or his representative? Ok, he is around.
“Ok Dr. Munir, I’m happy you are here. As you are all aware for the last six months, Nigeria wasn’t stable because of my husband’s ill-health. We thank God he had fully recovered now.
“If somebody like Mr. President can spend several months outside Nigeria, then you wonder what will happen to a common man on the street in Nigeria.
“Few weeks ago, I was sick as well. They advised me to take the first flight out to London; I refused to go. I said I must be treated in Nigeria because there is a budget for an assigned clinic to take care of us.
“If the budget is N100 million, we need to know how the budget is spent. Along the line, I insisted they call Aso Clinic to find out if the X-tray machine is working. They said it was not working. They didn’t know I am the one that was supposed to be in that hospital at that very time.
“I had to go to a hospital that was established by foreigners in and out 100 per cent. What does that mean?
“So, I think it’s high time for us to do the right thing. If something like this can happen to me, no need for me to ask the governors’ wives what is happening in their states.”
Mrs. Buhari added: “This is Abuja and this is the highest seat of government, and this is Presidential Villa. One of the speakers has already said we have very good policies in Nigeria. In fact, we have the best policies in Africa. Yes of course, we have but the implementation has been the problem.
“So, we need to change our mindsets and do the right thing. I’m sure Dr. Munir will not like me saying this but I have to say it out. As the Chief Medical Director, there are a lot of constructions going on in this hospital but there is no single syringe there what does that mean? Who will use the building?
“We have to be good in reasoning. You are building new building and there is no equipment, no consumables in the hospital and the construction is still going on,” she said.
Even as the budgetary provision was said to have been drastically reduced in the 2017 Budget, it would have been expected that those in charge would have maintain a balance in the utilization of the funds between proposed projects’ and maintaining at least minimal medical services in the clinic.
Grounding the running of the clinic will definitely not be in the interest of the State House.
Again, hoping to be one of the best commercially-run clinic in the city will be meaningless when it cannot perform its functions in the interim.
