HOUSE OF REPS VISITS EBONYI, DECRIES CONDITION OF PUBLIC HOSPITALS
Reporter : AMECHI ODO
The House of Representatives has decried the poor condition of the nation’s public health Institutions and called for stronger collaboration with relevant stakeholders to reposition the sector for optimal performance.
The Chairman House Committee on Federal Health Institutions, Chief Martins Oke, stated this when he led his members on an oversight visit to Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA).
Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki was a Federal Medical Centre but in 2012 it became a Federal Teaching Hospital before it was upgraded to a University Teaching Hospital last year and was named after the country’s first Vice President. The Chairman House Committee on Federal Health Institutions, Chief Martins Oke, explained that the nation was in dire need of stronger health institutions to meet the expectations of Nigerians in health service delivery.
He emphasised that though COVID-19 Pandemic had disrupted the fiscal year, the Committee’s oversight visit was to ascertain the level of implementation of 2020 budgetary releases and to ensure that Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, being a young health institution, started on a strong footing. The Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr. Emeka Onweogar, explained that of two hundred and seventy four million Naira budgeted for the facility in 2020, only one hundred and thirty seven million Naira had been released for capital projects.
He said some medical wards and offices at AE FUTHA had become weak and called for more infrastructure and equipment to enable the University Teaching Hospital to efficiently discharge its responsibilities of training health professionals. Facilities visited by the House Committee members were newly constructed auditorium, lectures halls, on going Accident and Emergency Unit being constructed by Ebonyi State Government at AE FUTHA II and National Obstetric Fistula Centre Abakaliki.