Senate decries poor state of Nigeria’s teaching hospitals, summons health minister

Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, has been summoned by the Nigerian Senate to come explain reasons services and facilities in Nigerian teaching hospitals are allegedly in poor state.

The lawmakers resolved to summon the minister following a deliberation on a motion entitled ‘Alarming report on poor quality of services in Nigerian Teaching Hospitals.’

Senator David Umaru (Niger East), sponsored the motion. In leading the motion, he said most teaching hospitals in Nigeria operate under poor electricity supply, obsolete medical equipment and decayed infrastructure, among others.

According to him, all these factors have left Nigerian teaching hospitals in difficult situation to provide tertiary healthcare to patients with complex ailments such as cancer, and kidney failure, among others.

Umaru told the senate that most teaching hospitals in Nigeria have been overstretched to a level that patients are forced “to sleep on bare floors, plastic mats and other unhygienic conditions that put them at the risk of contracting other ailments.”

He buttressed his motion with a report by Daily Trust Newspaper which painted horrible pictures of poor healthcare facilities in the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital (UDUTH), University of Maidugun’ Teaching Hospital (UMTH), Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano (AKTH) and University of Uyo Teaching Hospital.

After listening to contributions to the motion by some of the senators, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the minister has to appear before the Senate as quickly as possible.

He said, “We need to address this issue where you have patients lying on the floor and waiting for hours to be attended to.

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“And it all comedown, as we rightly said, to corruption. It means the funds are not being used for what they are allocated for, the funds will be used for something else.

“We also need to strengthen the Auditor-General’s office. Until we begin to oversee monies being sent to MDAs, we’ll continue to have these issues.

“How inadequate can funding be that there is no light, patients are lying on the floor and meanwhile, they are getting funding and allocation every year. And they are also getting revenue.”

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