Benue state teaching hospital lacks adequate personnel

Chief Medical Director of the Benue State Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) in Makurdi, Prof. Orkurga Malu has lamented the acute shortage of skilled personnel in the institution.

Malu told journalists in Makurdi that the hospital is in dire need of staff and finance to live up to expectation as a teaching facility.

He said though the state government should employ more nurses, administration staff as well as provide adequate funding, the major challenge remains getting the services of specialized medical practitioners in various sections of the hospital.

The CMD explained that skilled consultants are lacking in the country but that the BSUTH management is doing everything possible with the cooperation of Governor Samuel Ortom’s led government to get them.

According to him, he (Malu) is the only cardiologist in the facility and because he has to combine administrative duties with his practice, it has been challenging until recently when the management went into an agreement with a consultant he trained who now comes to attend to patients from outside the state on weekly basis.

Malu expressed hope that the next year’s budget would favour the hospital to enable it recruit fresh staff, purchase incinerator, train more personnel from across the country and retain same to overcome the dearth of skilled practitioners.

He said that apart from common cases of malaria and diahorea in children treated in the hospital, hepatitis and hypertension are on the rise, while road accident is the leading cause of death recorded in the facility.

The CMD therefore insisted that the hospital requires more skilled hands as a tertiary institution in order to bring to an end, situations where only one consultant in the entire state is available to meet the need of patients from all over Benue and beyond.