The Senate at the plenary on Wednesday summoned the Minister
of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, over the poor state of teaching hospitals in
the country, demanding accountability on the funds allocated to the health
sector by the Federal Government over the years.
During the debate on a motion moved by Senator David Umaru
and entitled ‘Alarming Report on Poor Quality of Services in Nigerian Teaching
Hospitals,’ the lawmakers took turns to decry the poor services rendered by
public health institutions.
While some lawmakers alleged corruption and mismanagement of
resources in the health sector, others noted the poor welfare of health
workers.
Granting prayers of the motion, the lawmakers mandated the
Committee on Health to “conduct an emergency investigative hearing on the state
of health care services in our teaching hospitals and report back to the Senate
within one week.”
They also resolved to “summon the Honourable Minister of
Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, to brief the Senate on the current state of
facilities and health care services in Nigeria’s teaching hospitals.”
While the Senate urge the Federal Government to adopt a
policy on subsidising the medical expenses of patients with terminal ailments
such as cancer and kidney failure, the chamber urged the government to
“immediately adopt short and long-term measures that will holistically address
the challenges confronting our teaching hospitals and retool them for excellent
tertiary health care services in the country.”
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, who presided over
the session blamed the decay in the country’s health facilities on corruption.
Saraki said, “It is a very important and urgent intervention
that is required from us. So, we need to get the minister here as quickly as
possible. As you all have said, it gives one a great concern when you consider
every year, a budgetary allocation is made. No matter how inadequate it is,
surely it should be adequate enough to be able to have a facility that patients
can be taken care of.
“Where patients are lying on the floors, surely, is a big shame
to the institution. Surely, as you all rightly said, it is corruption. It means
that the majority of these budgetary allocations are not used for what they
were allocated for, they must have been used for something else. That is why I
am happy that the next item we have (on the Order Paper) is the need to
strengthen the auditor-general’s office.
“Honestly, we will begin to clearly oversee monies being
sent to MDAs will continue to have this kind of problem. How inadequate can
funding be that there is no light, patients are lying on the floor but,
meanwhile, they are getting allocations everytime? And they are getting revenue
too. There is a serious problem. I hope we will be able to see what steps we
can take urgently.”
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