Ekiti NMA Seeks Improved Infrastructure In Teaching Hospital

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in Ekiti State has a poor state of infrastructure at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) in Ado-Ekiti, saying there was a need for urgent intervention by the state government.

NMA said this at the weekend, at the end of their 2017 Physicians Week/Ordinary General Meeting, that “the infrastructure of the EKSUTH, Ado Ekiti require urgent attention to enable it to meet its core mandate of health service delivery, training, and research.”

The doctors, in a communiqué at the end of their week, also called for urgent action against quackery in the state, saying this was important “to prevent the negative effects on the citizens of Ekiti State.”

In the communiqué signed by Ekiti NMA Chairman, Dr. Sunday Omoya and Secretary, Dr. Kenneth Onyebuilo, the doctors also commended officials of the state’s healthcare delivery system in the state for being among the five highly rated states in the coverage if immunization in the country.

They said: “Ekiti State is one of the five states in the federation according to the recently released National Immunisation Coverage Survey that have achieved immunization coverage of over 70per cent. This is a food feat under the tenure of Governor Ayodele Fayose.”

The doctors also commended Governor Fayose for approving of “the revised Consolidated Medical Salary Scale (CONMESS) for doctors in the state and local government employ and the appreciable effort to sustain payment of salaries despite economic recession ravaging the country.”

On the menace of quacks in the medical roofless ion in the state, the NMA said it had commenced the accreditation of health facilities in the state to fish out operators of illegal medical centers, saying the activities of some unregistered medical practitioners were affecting the medical practice in Ekiti.

“We have set up a committee to look into this issue of quackery. We have entered into an agreement with the State government on this and that was why the government is doing the accreditation and re-registration of all health facilities.

“We are looking into the genuineness of any health facilities and whether it has not gone out of the scope for which it was registered. If you registered a maternity, or clinic or hospital, you can’t go beyond that scope but in Ekiti some maternity homes are performing surgeries and this was wrong and dangerous.

“We are assuring that any illegal health facility we discover will be closed down and the owner shall be prosecuted accordingly,” he warned.

The doctors also said, “as we speak now, six months are being owed while civil servants are owed five months and this is causing serious demoralization to our doctors in all the cadres of health institutions.”
They said if the arrears could not be cleared, the state government should try to bring them to par with their colleague civil servants in the state.