The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Health, Amos Magaji, pushes for the declaration of state of emergency in the health sector.
He made this known at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti, Ekiti State on Wednesday when members of the committees on oversight function of health facilities in the Southwest visited the medical facility.
According to him, resolving the problems plaguing Nigeria’s health sector requires a multi-pronged approach and promised that it would soon bounce back when the necessary things are done.
Prof Adekunle Ajayi, the chief medical director of FETHI, while leading the legislators on inspection of facilities and projects in the hospital, listed the challenges faced by the health institution to include huge power costs, inadequate water supply, poor access roads, ecological challenges, uncertain manpower planning and need to upgrade the medical facility.
Among the facilities inspected by the House Committee members are the Isolation Ward; the new Histopathology building; the new Accident and Emergency Ward, the Assisted Reproductive Technology building, the 150-bedded building, the Molecular Laboratory and the Physiotherapy Building.
The lawmaker said that the yearly budgetary provision for Health by the Federal Government was small and grossly inadequate to run the hospitals effectively and efficiently and that it cannot serve the hospitals and patients in the country given its population.
Mogagi said, “The National Assembly, going forward, will be pushing for a state of emergency to be declared on Health because where we are now as a nation, it is not possible that health will be funded by the budget.
The lawmaker said the committee would call a meeting with the national leadership of all health unions and all pertinent MDAs to discuss concerns of some health workers’ salaries, bonuses, and arrears not being paid as part of efforts to address problems in the industry.
He said, “This is not the time for health workers to work without receiving their payment. Then the issue of one-on-one replacement, we are looking at it. Immediately we get back to Abuja, we will call on all the relevant agencies to discuss how to remove all the bottlenecks in employment or replacement in the healthcare sector”.
However, he commend FETHI management for making good use of the available space and the significant expansion, saying,
“We are impressed with what they have done with the resources that the Federal Government has given them.”
