Investigation: Residents lament state of disrepair in Billiri General Hospital Gombe
By Chima Azubuike
A member representing Billiri west in Gombe House of Assembly, Tulfukut Kardi has lamented the state of collapse at the Billiri General Hospital Gombe.
Our Correspondent reports that the hospital has an Administration block, General Out Patient Department (GOPD), Accident and Emergency (A&E) Unit, Theatre, Mortuary, Nursing and Pharmacy Units, Laboratory, Surgical and Medical Wards for both male and female patients and Paediatric Ward and Eye Clinic among others. However, the functionality of the departments is another as the compound has been turned to farmlands.
According to the Minority whip, patients, alongside their relatives sleep on the ground due to the decay of beddings at the facility.
The lawmaker made this disclosure in a letter addressed to Governor Muhammadu Yahaya, which was obtained by Periscope Nigeria.
The lawmaker’s letter partly read, “It will interest Your Excellency to note that the present state of Billiri General Hospital ever remains dilapidated with structures almost collapsing or even non-existent while in-patients cry out against the near sub-human conditions prevalent.
“if experiences are any guide, some in-patients and their relatives even sleep on the bare floor as bedding and other equipment have decayed out or emitting great stench or stinking to high heavens. And the paucity of medical equipment, drugs and qualified personnel to man the facility has almost transformed it into a near death chamber or a mere health consulting outfit.”
When our correspondent visited the facility, around noon in an attempt to assess the state of disrepair, Billiri General Hospital which is a secondary healthcare facility in the local government was established to serve as a referral centre for Primary Healthcare Centres across 10 wards of the LGA.
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It has consistently witnessed low patronage following what residents claimed was caused by hospital’s declining standard.
The challenges bedeviling the facility as observed include; lack of toilet facilities as the major one has sunk, inadequate water supply to maintain existing ones, as well power supply despite about three industrial generators in the hospital, including littered moribund solar panels, some departments rely on rationing of power from generator averagely above the one commonly referred to as ‘I pass my neighbour’.
Workers quick to seek transfer at the detriment of the facility
A hospital staff who volunteered information on the condition of anonymity claimed the lack of manpower was as a result of unnecessary transfers.
He said, “Healthcare workers posted to the hospital usually sought for transfer to other hospitals and healthcare centres with better working condition.
“The Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit is usually empty. In a case of any emergency, the patients have to buy basic things like cotton wool and syringe etc, before they could be attended to.
“There are less than 20 nurses, with 17 Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW) and 11 Environmentalists working in the hospital as the only permanent staff that literally run the hospital.”
Speaking further the staff revealed that “The hospital heavily relies on casual workers to run the shift. Sometimes attendants, some of them with low qualification as secondary school certificate, are in-charge of some critical unit like the eye clinic.
“Despite being a general hospital, there is no dental unit and Ears, Nose and Throat (ENT) unit. People with such ailments have to visit Kaltungo or Kumo, a distance of over 10 kilometres each.”
“Apart from the decayed equipment and infrastructure, lack of adequate manpower is another problem bedeviling and affecting the smooth running of the hospital,” the source added.
Tales of woo
A resident who simply identified himself as Mohammed Salau, narrated how doctors referred patients to their private clinics, “Just recently my elder brother’s wife came at night for cesarean section there was no power they were managing torchlight, so they couldn’t operate on her, but instead referred us to their private clinic for the process.
“They tell you CS is free but if they write you long list, you will find out that it can be enough to take care of many others. During emergency you need to give them money to fuel the small generator if not the whole place will be in the dark. When Dr. Edward was there he did very well to improve the system,” Salau said.
Also, Charity Ahmed, who resides in Billiri said she no longer patronised the facility despite pocket-sized cost of seeing a medical doctor.
She said,”I can’t risk pursuing something that is said to be cheap when I don’t get the best medical attention. I rather spend the money somewhere to get my health back to normal. I don’t know how to categorise that facility.”
Government’s intervention
According to the Gombe State Commissioner for Health Dr. Habu Dahiru, the government was aware about the state of the General Hospital, adding that efforts were on to complete three across the senatorial districts.
The commissioner who visited the facility following the windstorm that affected some part of the facility with the paramount ruler of the LGA, alongside other departmental heads promised to give the facility a facelift.
Dahiru said, “I’m aware about the damage that took place at the general hospital Billiri. There was windstorm and some parts of the paediatric ward, female medical ward was destroyed but I must say that this windstorm has given an impact on those places but the hospital has suffered some neglect over the years since the last 10 years. There was no renovation this may not be attributed to this administration, of course I was informed when I visited the place that the last administration had promised to give a facelift to the facility but they were not able to. I have taken it up as directed by his excellency the governor, to visit the place.
“We are going to look at water, electricity issues. We may sink another borehole to complement the current one. I have gotten detailed report on it and memo will be sent to the governor for consideration. If you upgrade a facility you are not talking of the structure alone equipment that have become obsolete will be taken away and new ones installed.
“Have you not seen what we did at the Specialist hospital, and the three hospitals each in the senatorial districts Bajoga (North), Kaltungo (South) and Kumo (Gombe Central). The same thing we will replicate after that across 11 local government areas that have 23 General Hospitals. We have renovated at one Primary Healthcare centres in 114 wards and some wards have more than one.”
Speaking about shortage of personnel, Dahiru said, “Human Resources (HR) rage is global. It is not only in Gombe, Nigeria, we have gotten approval to recruit 440 middle class manpower midwives as we do we will get more doctors, pharmacists, consultants. HR rage is a major burden but we are working with development partners to see how we can develop a long term plan to reduce the rage. Gombe has gotten accreditation to train doctors in Obstetrics, Gynaecology and family medicine.
“We have gotten accreditation to train house officers as soon as we graduate students from Gombe college of medicine and other colleges with Gombe indigenes all of them will be absorbed. We are also building a brand new school of nursing that will accommodate 600 students at the moment it more than 85 percent completion. With the new site it will give us opportunity to recruit more number of nurses.”
