Dance, plaudits as Enugu’s second busiest hospital gets fitting upgrade
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/10/dance-plaudits-as-enugus-second-busiest.html
Situated in Asata, just at the cusp of a major intersection
that connects several middle income and high density neighbourhoods in
the Enugu metropolis, there couldn’t have been a more apt location for
Poly Clinic, a facility which in its early days was comparable to the
famous Massey Street Children’s Hospital in Lagos. Everyday, this
secondary health facility witnesses a daily surge for maternity reasons,
or generally from patients seeking specialist care for a variety of
ailments for which they pay fees subsidized by the state government.
Indeed,
as one of the centres where the public can access treatment for the
Enugu State’s Free Maternal and Child Health, the pressure is even more
so to such extent that on peak days like Mondays and Wednesdays the
figure could be between 150 – 180 women and children. That figure is
specific to the clinic for pregnant women and children under five years.
For
a clinic established decades ago when the population in the state
capital had not experienced such exponential growth, it was only a
matter of time before facilities became overstretched. Last year, the
facility began to experience a makeover conceived to improve its
aesthetics and confer on it a look and space that are dignifying for
both staff and the patients. But the makeover has not merely been in a
structural sense. Besides being re-equipped with diverse medical tools
and facilities described as “comparable to the best standard anywhere in
the world” by Dr. Okechukwu Ossai, administrator of the state’s
Hospital Management Board, the manpower also grew massively with more
specialists employed by the state government.
The upgrade culminated in a change of status, from a mere clinic
managed by non-specialists that it was to a general hospital with all
the specialties and departments in the medical field. “If you step into
every room in this hospital you would understand why we’re gathered
here,” the permanent secretary of the state’s health ministry, Dr.
Ifeanyi Agujiobi, told guests that had gathered to witness the
reconstructed facility’s commissioning. He wasn’t exaggerating. From the
obstetrics theatre to the general theatre and the emergency ward and
laboratory, each of the installed equipment bespoke some cutting edge
technology.
A similar makeover is being extended to the 390
primary healthcare facilities and 43 cottage hospitals across the state.
The upgrade is consistent with the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi
administration’s desire to improve the quality of healthcare at the
primary and secondary levels and expand their capacity to cater to the
needs of a growing population.
That desire underpinned the Enugu State government’s determined push
towards attaining a universal health coverage status for all residents.
Its recent fulfillment of requirements for the takeoff of the Basic
Healthcare Provision Fund and payment of the mandatory N100m counterpart
fund underscored that commitment. “This will enable all residents in
the state to access care under the Universal Health Coverage,” noted
shortly before he formally commissioned the facility, also said to be
the “busiest general hospital and second busiest public healthcare
facility in the state after the Enugu State University Teaching
Hospital, Parklane”.
But Ugwuanyi is not simply reveling in the
glory of the moment. In anticipation of the manpower demands arising
from the expansion and the increased traffic of referrals from the
general hospitals, his government recently granted approval to the
state’s teaching hospital to absorb one hundred and twenty-five interns
of diverse medical background and one hundred and two resident doctors.
This is in addition to a sustained employment of consultants in
different medical fields.
The robust expansion of medical facilities which the state government
has carried out, and the requisite staffing it has ensured reflects in
Enugu’s impressive doctor-patient ratio. According to a report by the
National Bureau of Statistics, Enugu State’s doctor-patient ratio of
1:1,812 is the fourth best in the country, coming only behind the
Federal Capital Territory (1 doctor to every 1,267 resident population),
Edo State (1:1,416) and Lagos State (1:1,709). Only states such as Oyo
(1 doctor to 2,729 patients), Kwara (1 doctor to 2,965) and Rivers (1
doctor to 3,661) posted any figure that could be considered somewhat
close to the top three states.
Although Enugu’s figure (indeed,
every state in the federation) fell below the desirable doctor-patient
ratio of 1 doctor to every 1,000 recommended by the World Health
Organisation, the commitment that Ugwuanyi has demonstrated towards
enthroning an affordable healthcare with an extensive reach suggests the
state can conveniently attain that threshold. His comment at the formal
opening of the reconstructed Udi District Hospital (now Udi General
Hospital) helped reaffirm this. “We remain committed to our campaign
promises and the social contract and unrelenting in our bid to change
the narratives in our state health system,” he said.
He had similarly demonstrated that resolve through his government’s
doubling of the monthly sum dedicated to funding the state’s free health
programme for pregnant women and under-5 children. The approval and
implementation of the Consolidated Health Workers Salary Scale (CONHESS)
for health workers in the state also highlighted the Ugwuanyi
administration’s vision for a reliable public health system. That
gesture brought a significant rise in the earnings of nurses, midwives,
laboratory scientists, radiographers and a host of other health workers
under the Allied Union of Health Workers. Of course, it goes without
saying that doctors in Enugu State have long been on the Consolidated
Medical Salary Scale (CONMESS).
Poly Clinic’s upgrade means a vast
population of residents in the Enugu metropolis no longer have to make
any more lengthy commute in search of a prime health facility like they
once did. Usually, that entailed going to either the state university’s
teaching hospital or the more distant University of Nigeria Teaching
Hospital at the outskirts of Enugu. “This is the real democracy
dividend,” a young mother cradling an infant says to no one in
particular. There are countless others like her who feel this way.
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