Excerpts:
What he met on ground?
So you can see that I had good grip of the problems. The infrastructure was very poor like the Accident/Emergency Unit which had only seven couches in a single room. And you know that in this axis, there are a lot of accidents, this is like a funnel for the North- east, some parts of the Middle-Belt and some parts of the East. We have built a new Accident/Emergency Unit equipped with 30 beds. It has the state-of-the-art theatre, we can do full operation there and can house 30 patients. It is almost a whole hospital of its own. The wards were not well positioned for the present services we are rendering, so we had to renovate all the wards.
Transformation
The Outpatient Department, as a matter of fact, that is where the pilot project on Servicom was perfected and now FMC Keffi is a model for tertiary health institutions in the country. That is a department I was heading and I was the Chairman of the pilot project; we had some funds resulting from goodwill, we were able to renovate that department, built offices, seminal room, and improved on the waiting area.
In 2009, the administrative block was burnt down together with all the records kept by the hospital. But now if you go to FMC Keffi, you will see a two-storey building ongoing in place of the former block and we hope to complete it this year or next. We also expanded our Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department initially donated by the state government reaching lintel level and we completed it through our budgetary provisions. We have since moved into it.
We have built a Family Planning Unit and a National Health Insurance Scheme Complex. We also put in place a Central Information Technology Unit, a one-storey building to be equipped to help the hospital communicate with the outside world and conduct telemedicine, teleconferencing and even communicate with our outstations. Presently, we are working with the Nasarawa government to have three outstations in Wamba, Toto and Doma, so that our doctors can go out and see people in the communities.
We have all the teleconferencing equipment on ground ready to be installed. I had to create a workshop to repair our vehicles within and so on and so forth. There are so many other developments that came in terms of infrastructure. The Golden Hand, a fountain, was put in place to show that with our hands, we are going to do excellent things as well as a sign of life. Of course, we have also extended our Radiology Department to house our new equipment.
Medical equipment
We have a C-T scan machine, previously only found in the University of Jos and Gwagwalada. If you want to scan the brain, even if there is bleeding somewhere, it will be able to show, giving you a three-dimensional view of the brain. It is a costly machine, over a hundred million Naira, we had to go into partnership with the supplier. Ours is the only place where you have the equipment in Nasarawa State. We also have a digital x-ray machine.
Hitherto, you take the x-ray and then give the patient a packet, but this one is not like that. After taking the x-ray, you can even send it abroad by email, because it is digital.
If you want to print it, you can save it in a disc, flash or any saving device. We have state-of-the-art equipment in the Ophthalmology Department comparable only to the National Eye Center in Kaduna.
We have similar equipment in our Physiotherapy Department, in our laboratory, in our Accident/Emergency Department, with defibrillators, to revive the heartbeat of dying patients. We have equipment capable of monitoring the body system. We have cardiothopographic machines that can monitor babies in the womb. We have equipment that can scan the anus, the private part of women, puncture and see the inside of the abdomen through the mouth. We hope to commission our teleconferencing equipment soon to enable us join hands with doctors internationally to treat our patients.
Manpower development
When I took over, there was only internship in Laboratory and Pharmacy Departments. We now have more graduates in laboratory science and pharmacy coming to do internship before they go for NYSC. As soon as I came in, I ensured the immediate take-off of the housemanship for doctors. We also have residency programme where doctors are being trained to become consultants.
We have accreditation from postgraduate medical colleges and to train doctors at consultant level in family medicine, obstetrics and genecology and are about to receive accreditation visit from the National College in Pediatrics. We are making efforts to also start residency programme in surgery, internal medicine and radiology. By this, FMC Keffi is a teaching hospital. Though, we do not train undergraduates but postgraduates.
On-the-job-training
The trend was doctors come in and go because they are not being trained, with a very high turnover but with this development we now have doctors that would stay and work up to the time they become consultants. We have also done a lot of in-house training for others. We have sent many nurses to one-year course, and we have sent others for workshops and courses. The staff is happy because of the level of manpower development; and but for budgetary limitations, we will continue to train and retrain our staff for maximum utilization.
Ambulances in place
When I came, I met two so-called ambulances but they were only carrying dead bodies. So we had to buy two more ambulances with equipment to revive patients. So I can say we have two ambulances and two carriers. We still need more state-of-the-art ambulances. One of the ambulances had a problem sometime back but we restored the problem. Ambulances are for carrying live patients to another centre and while on transit you are able to provide necessary care for the survival of the patient. We are poised to handle life to the best of our abilities.
Relationship with host community
We have fared very well; the Emir of Keffi, Alhaji Chindo Yamusa, has been playing a fatherly role in the affairs of the center. He always encouraged us since inception. Many other politicians and elders committee have also continued to encourage us. In fact, people like Hon. Aliyu Wadada have been in the fore front of donating even buildings to us. He donated a public toilet, a patients' relations block, and some seats and presently he is digging a bore hole for us.
Without a cordial relationship you will not see such collaboration. Senator Abdullahi Adamu also promised us a ward and an electrocardiographic (ECG) machine. He came and saw what we are doing and was amazed, and he wants to be our partner. The Obstetrics and Gynecology Block was started by the state government while the Federal Government completed it. But within the community you will not lack people who rise up against us, just because of some dissatisfaction, most of such bordering on maybe wanting employment and if they don't get it, or maybe wanting some funds or contracts and when they don't get such, they shout or write petitions.
Conflicting interest
Everybody cannot be employed, not everybody can have contract, even the health care, you may come and find the beds are full; you have to go somewhere else. If you look at it that way, then somehow you will find some dissatisfaction in some quarters. But what we have done was to form an FMC Keffi/Community Interactive Forum where we can discuss issues affecting the community and the center.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Favour Nnabugwu
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 05.01.2014
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