The management of State House Clinic has disclosed plans to scale down the number of persons authorised to access treatment at its Asokoro facility located in Abuja, citing lean budgetary allocation.
The clinic established to provide health care services to the president and vice president, as well as their families and staff of the Presidential Villa, now caters for about 32,000 patients, a situation the authorities said, “is not sustainable.”
The Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijjani Umar said the authorities are determined to eliminate those he described as “hangers-on” and extend services to only those who are officially entitled to access them at the facility. Umar said the decision was taken at a meeting of stakeholders to bring back the clinic to its original status of efficient service provider for the intended persons.
“We are going to trim down the number of unentitled people. They are bringing constraints to us; they are bringing issues, that’s all. This will assist us to look at those areas requiring improvement. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.
“The clinic used to be a yardstick for performance measurement in the medical enclave and pride of the highly trained and experienced personnel working there.
“However, over the recent years, it was observed that services rendered at the clinic to the privileged few suffered noticeable decline to almost zero in terms of delivery. This resulted to a mockery of the facility and loss of confidence by its customers on its ability to render effective services.”
Umar said in an effort to redress the situation and regain the hospital’s lost glory, the State House management returned the status of the facility to its original clinic to limit the number of patients it handles and also maintain the original purpose for which it was created.
According to Umar, the authorities are also determined to address the problem of epileptic power supply to the clinic, which has been a major challenge to the provision of effective services by the hospital.
The SERVICOM National Coordinator, Mrs. Nnennna Akajemeli, said a survey conducted at the clinic revealed shortage of staff, especially doctors, and frequent power outage among others.
According to her, the development affects the waiting time in the delivery of service, poor electricity supply affects sensitive machines that require constant power to function in the clinic. Akajemeli said the workshop was aimed at addressing the shortfall in service delivery at the clinic.