Ekiti to partner Federal Teaching Hospital for effective grassroots health services

The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has reiterated the commitment of his administration towards ensuring better health care service delivery at the grassroots by creating a synergy with the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti and other relevant institutions.

The Governor stated this while receiving members of management and Governing Council of the hospital on Wednesday.

He expressed his readiness to work out modalities that will enable consultants in the hospital attend to patients at the primary and basic health facilities in the state.

Fayemi commended the giant strides the management and the governing council of the hospital had taken to reposition the hospital, but appealed for more synergy with the host community through recruitment of the local people as workers in the hospital.

Governor Fayemi announced that the Ekiti State University would soon graduate its first set of medical students following the final accreditation of its College of Medicine by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, adding that his government has proposed to employ the students on graduation to fortify the staff strength of state health services.

The Governor, who congratulated the students and their parents over the accreditation, said with strategic collaboration between the government and these institutions, the administration would actualise its dream of bringing health care delivery closer to the people.

The governor said: “I cannot say I am not aware of the strides the CMD has been making since he assumed office at the Federal Teaching Hospital and we are very proud of the work he is doing. As much as we are delighted that we have this institution in Ekiti, we also want it to be of better value to our people in the state.

“I get a lot of feedback from Ido community where the teaching hospital is and one can argue that Oliver Twist will always ask for more and the community feels that the teaching hospital is not doing enough for them.  Particularly by way of recruitment of local people in the teaching hospital. So it’s an area where I want you to put your political weight.

“We are glad that the teaching hospital serves as a training institution for Afe Babalola University, but I think there is an opportunity for cross fertilisation of all of these institutions that are in this area. We are delighted that we too will be graduating our first set of medical students before the end of the year with the recent final accreditation of our medical school, Afe Babalola beat us to it but it is still an Ekiti institution. But we think that is an area we think we can have a lot of input from you.

“The area, which is of utmost importance to me personally and I know that we’ve one or two examples of this before in other federal institutions and it’s something I had cause to discuss with Prof. Isaac Adewole when he was still the Minister, the teaching hospital has an extensive number of consultants, I don’t want to say they are under-utilized, so what I want to plead with you as the CMD and the Board is for us to put them to some use within our community because they can be of assistance to us, we have heavy focus on primary health, I know that their level is higher than that, we are talking about level where Medical Officers can operate and support us but I would want them to see it more as a community service than a duty on their part when we require the need for their expertise, their contribution at the local level.

“We have like 300 Primary Health Centres. We’ve just chosen about 177 of them for our basic health care provision, and we believe that our consultants at the teaching hospital can just put in a little bit of time when they are not busy in the teaching hospital.

“We can work out the structure that will give them the opportunity, maybe we need to discuss with their MD or discuss with the board or you require a formal engagement from us on this. It’s an area I think we should look at because we cannot have these knowledgeable people in a state and yet we do not have enough of it is benefits, its incongruous in my view.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the institution, Hon. Abubakar Sukababa, solicited the support of the state government to enable it continue to deliver quality health services to the people.

Sukababa said the hospital is in dare need of a well-equipped ambulance and other operational vehicles as well as support for the construction of the road network in the hospital.
Also speaking at the event, the Chief Medical Director of the Institution, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, said the hospital would collaborate with sister institutions in the state to ensure effective and adequate health service delivery to the people.