President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned State House Permanent Secretary, Jalal Arabi and Medical Director of State House Medical Centre, over the deplorable condition of the facility, Dr Mannir Hussain over the deplorable state of the medical facility.
The President invited them presumably on the weight of negative reports and observations coming from visitors to the facility.
It will be recalled that Zahra Buhari, the President’s daughter, had expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the medical centre.
Intended for emergency and routine medical services for the president and other workers in the State House, the facility was expected to maintain superior environmental conditions and state of the art equipment.
But visitors, including Zahra, have reportedly expressed embarrassment over the facility’s gross inadequacies.
This situation may have prompted the president to invite the officials to his office on Wednesday.
Curiously, about N3.8bn was budgeted for the State House Medical Centre for 2017.
It will be recalled there are plans to commercialise the facility.
According to the Jalal, the commercialisation of the clinic will boost its revenue and augment the appropriation it receives from the government in the quest for a better qualitative service.
‘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.
‘‘The Centre offers free services, nobody pays a kobo for hospital card, consultations or prescriptions and this has taken a toll on the subvention the Centre receives from the government
‘‘We have some of the best equipment in the country. For instance, to maintain the MRI and other scan machines, we spend close to N2 million monthly. Yet we do not charge a dime for those who require MRI scans in the clinic,’’ the permanent secretary said.
According to him, the proposed reforms will ensure that those eligible to use the Centre are NHIS complaint with their Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) or primary health provider domiciled in the clinic.