THE ad-hoc committee of the House of
Representatives probing Aso Rock Clinic,
yesterday, declared that the life of
the President and his family members would not be put at risk, saying there was
need to have an effective health management in place in case of an emergency.
Chairman of the committee, Magaji
Aliyu, stated this during an afternoon interactive session with Ismaila Kawu,
Senior Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (House);
Ita Enang, Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters
(Senate); Osagie Ehanire, Minister of State for Health and representatives of
Muhammad Bello, FCT Minister, at the National Assembly complex, Abuja. Aliyu
and other lawmakers, who expressed grave concerns over the presentations of
both ministers earlier, who claimed ignorance of activities of the State House
Clinic, frowned at the poor management of the facility by previous
administrations. He said: “The summary of the whole thing is that the clinic is
just there, it is not supervised and is not under anybody.
The Ministry of Health and FCT said
they are not aware, meaning the hospital is just there. I want all information
on the clinic. We can’t afford to risk the life of Mr. President and somebody
should be responsible.” Doctors, non-medical staff collect allowances According
to the report presented by the State House Permanent Secretary to the
committee, out of 329 personnel working in the State House Clinic, 47 non-core
medical personnel for several years illegally collected call-duty allowances.
It alleged that some doctors
sponsored by the State House to proceed on Residency programmes (usually two
years), got their call duty allowances paid even when they were no longer
performing call duties at the medical centre. The Permanent Secretary told the
lawmakers:“Sadly, some of them were discovered to have spent close to seven
years doing residency, with many changing institutions, as they fail to
qualify.
“In view of the fact that paying
doctors on sponsored training programme, call duty allowance was considered
unearned allowances, IPPIS (OAGF) was advised to cease paying them such
allowances, pending their return to duty from training.”
The Permanent Secretary also blamed
80 percent of the State House workers and their spouses for enjoying free
medical services, despite their failure to enlist on the State House Clinic’s
National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS. “The State House reached an agreement
with HMOs with regard to the remittance of all NHIS payments in respect of
State House staff whose NHIS point is the State House Medical Centre.
‘’It is instructive, however, to
note that whereas almost 80% of the personnel serving in the State House access
medical services at the State House Medical Centre, only about 20% of them
selected the medical centre as their NHIS point. “The implication of the
foregoing is that, whereas they access free medical services at the centre,
their respective NHIS contributions go to those medical facilities they
selected as their providers, even though they do not go there for any medical
service.
‘’This explains the quick depletion of the drugs
and other consumables due to the very high number of patients being attached,”
he said.
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