Minister Promises Improved Funding For FMC Asaba

By Kenneth Orusi, The Nigerian Voice, Asaba
The Minister flanked by the Acting MD Dr Osiatuma-right and other members of his team
The Minister flanked by the Acting MD Dr Osiatuma-right and other members of his team

The Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire has assured the management team of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba that the federal ministry of health in collaboration with the National Health Insurance Scheme has generated a special intervention fund to be released to the FMC Asaba.

The minister made this known Friday at the hospital while addressing staff before commissioning the Accident and Emergency building and the newly renovated Utility block currently accommodating the physiotherapy department of the hospital, “it is from there that N120 million has been provided to take care of needs according to work plan. Conditions are enclosed which you have to meet and those conditions you have to follow very strictly”.

Dr Ehanire noted that government is determined to put in every effort to ensure that the hospitals work, lamenting that primary health centres across the country were not functioning well, and thereby forcing people to find their way to federal medical centres.

While bemoaning that the federal medical centres were not built for minor sicknesses, he pointed out that primary health centres should be saddled with such responsibilities, “government will push in the revitalization of one primary healthcare centre in every political ward and working with the state and local governments to make these areas centres where 60 per cent of all the cases will be attended to”.

He stressed that the FMC should be an apex hospital where only referred cases should be attended to, “outpatient cases should actually be small. It should not be the main thing you are doing”, he instructed.

Earlier in his opening remarks, the Acting Medical Director (MD), Dr Victor Osiatuma reeled out some of the achievements of the hospital, stressing that the hospital which was established in 1998 and took off from very old buildings and facilities of the defunct general hospital Asaba has transformed to its current state through hard work, resourcefulness and determination of successive MDs and staff as well as appropriate funding from the federal government.

According to him, “the hospital has grown from a 30 bed facility to 400 beds that we now currently have. The outpatient attendant and admission has also moved alongside with the expansion of the facilities. In terms of personnel, at inception, the hospital started with the total staff strength of about 300 but now has over 1300 staff excluding adhoc staff. Remarkably, the number of consultants increased from eight in November 2006 to 56 full time consultants”, disclosing that the number also excludes part time consultants.

Dr Osiatuma also disclosed that the number of nurses have also increased from about 100 to 450 during the same time frame, noting that the hospital commenced residency training 2010 with the accreditation of the family medicine department, “four other departments; namely Podiatric, obstetrics and genecology, surgery and internal medicine have joined the residency training”.

He said the management was also making great efforts in getting accreditation for residency programme in public health and an Anastasia department this year.

He disclosed that the hospital has always been rated high in the SERVICOM assessment for efficiency in federal government institutions across the country.

The Acting MD identified incessant strikes, inability to access in full the N31 million capital subvention, stagnated projects due to non-availability of funds, internal transport system of the hospital and lack of official vehicles and inadequate power supply as challenges bedevilling the hospital.