State House clinic for commercialisation — Presidency

The Presidency yesterday announced plans to commercialise the State House Medical Centre.

A statement by the Deputy Director of Information Mr Attah Esa, quoted the State House Permanent Secretary, Mr Jalal Arabi, as confirming the plan.

The clinic is meant to serve Nigeria's president, vice president and their families as well as employees of the Presidency.

The permanent secretary hinted that maintenance of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other scan machines of the Medical Centre gulped about N2 million monthly.

This was amidst complaints by some patients that they were referred outside the centre for various scanning.

Reacting to a Daily Trust exclusive report on drug scarcity in the hospital, Arabi said the management would, among other things, "seek the commercialisation of the centre to boost its revenue and augment the appropriation it receives from government in the quest for a better qualitative service."

Daily Trust reports that N3.8 billion was budgeted for the State House Medical Centre in 2016 and N331.7 million in 2017; with zero capital allocation.

The permanent secretary said the centre, which currently offers free medical services to patients, would be repositioned to offer qualitative and efficient services.

‘‘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,” he said.

He said the proposed reforms would ensure that those eligible to use the Centre were NHIS compliant with their Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) or primary health provider domiciled in the clinic.

‘‘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.