State House clinic gets N9bn in 10yrs

N1.209 billion in 2011 and N1.208 billion in 2008.

The centre’s least allocations were N137 million in 2015, N293 million in 2009, and N332 million in 2017, the official documents revealed.

Other annual votes to the first family’s health facility are N863 million (2014), N620 million (2013), N884 million (2012), and N449 million (2010).

Despite these huge allocations over the years, the clinic remains without commensurate facilities and equipment, while common drugs and other items such as paracetamol, Vitamin B-complex, cotton wools, and syringe are not available.

This development, which forced successive presidents to travel abroad for medical attention, also drew the ire of some key members of the first family.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Zahra, fired the first salvo when she complained about lack of basic medical amenities in the clinic.

Zahra wrote on her Instagram page thus: “More than N3 billion budgeted for the State House clinic and workers there don’t have the equipment to work with? Why? Where is the money going to? Medication only stocked once since the beginning of the year? Why?”

Only last week, her mother, Aisha Buhari, corroborated Zahra’s claims when she lamented the lack of basic amenities despite the allocations to the hospital.

President Buhari who prohibited public officials from traveling abroad for medicals had so far spent about 170 days abroad seeking medical attention since he came to office on May 29, 2015.

The situation, Daily Trust observed, seems to be scaring patients away. Our reporter, who was at the medical facility a fortnight ago, from 7 am to 12:00noon, counted only seven patients waiting to see doctors.

In contrast, the presidential clinic got more capital votes for doing less than other federal medical facilities across the country that cater for millions of patients.

In 2016 for instance, the federal government proposed to spend N787 million more in capital allocation to the clinic than all the 16 teaching hospitals combined.

Investigations by this newspaper revealed that the Federal Medical Centre Katsina, with an annual capital budget of N87.6 million in 2017, caters for an estimated 100,000 patients annually.

The Katsina facility with about 208 doctors, attend to an average of 250 patients daily, Daily Trust findings revealed.

A patient pays N200 for consultation card and N3,000 daily for bed space if eventually admitted.

All drugs are paid for at the point of treatment. A doctor prescribes drugs and patients buy them from the hospital pharmacies. Only those not available are allowed to be purchased outside.

However, on average, a doctor sees about 70 patients daily depending on the department he’s working. A source inside the hospital said during peak hours doctors at the paediatrics department can see over 100 children in a day just as in other departments like OPD or medical can see less than that.

In Zamfara State, the Federal Medical Centre, with a capital budget of N158 million in 2017, has about 110 doctors including consultants, according to the secretary of the Association of Residents Doctors Dr Nasir Abdurashid.

He said in the Department of Ophthalmology to which he belonged, doctorsattended to between 40 and 50 patients daily.

“I can’t exactly tell you the number of patients other departments see per day but there are some who attend to more than 100 patients in a day. You know there are many departments in the facility and each has its own record of patients they see per day,” he said.

Like in Katsina, patients pay N200 for cards, N300 for files and N2,000 for bed space, he said.

The House of Representatives last week asked its Committee on Healthcare Services to probe the deplorable condition of the State House Clinic and alleged deductions from the salaries and allowances of its medical staff.

The resolution was sequel to a motion by Rep Henry Archibong (PDP, Akwa Ibom) during plenary on Thursday.

Moving the motion, Archibong said that the clinic had, over the years, been receiving annual budgetary allocations to procure equipment that will enable it to function optimally.

He said in 2015, 2016 and 2017 Appropriation Acts, the clinic was allocated the sums of N3.94 billion, N3.87 billion and N3.2 billion, respectively, for upgrading and provision of necessary drugs and equipment.

“In spite of those huge budgetary allocations, the clinic lacks necessary facilities such as syringes, drugs, and equipment needed for saving lives,” he said.

Archibong said that medical doctors working at the clinic had expressed concern over alleged illegal deductions from their salaries and allowances by the management since April 2017 without any official communication for the action.