FCT and the Health Sector

The Ministry of the FCT is the institutional agency charged by the federal government to provide services to the residents of the federal capital in all the sectorial areas of human developments.

 The ministry has made tremendous impacts on the residents of Abuja through the provision of qualitative services, regulations and infrastructural needs of the health sectors.

Today Abuja is ranked as one of the fastest developing cities in sub-Saharan Africa because of the tremendous impacts recorded by this administration in the provisions of health services in the FCT.

Five FCTA hospitals including Maitama, Bwari, Asokoro, Kubwa and Gwarinpa have been computerised while the Radiology units at Gwarinpa, Wuse, Kubwa, Asokoro and Maitama hospitals have been upgraded with sophisticated equipment to make the hospitals up to date.

The Zuba Cottage Hospital and the Karu General Hospital have commenced health services since their re-openings by the minister of the FCT.  The minister has also given approvals for speedy recruitments of qualified health personnel for various vacancies so that the hospitals are not starved of manpower. Some renovations were carried out in the hospitals and they are now fully operational.

The FCT health secretariat has always been asked by the minister to always be pro-active in the administration of health and in keeping with this directive the health secretariat has started employing qualified individuals into the health sector through vacancies and areas of needs. The health secretariat has also secured full accreditation of FCT hospitals for residency training in obstetrics and gynaecology for the period of five years, a major leap in the health sector. Computerisations of five FCT hospitals, establishments of 265 HIV sites in the health facilities within the six area councils, upgrading of one of the Abuja central medical stores to the status of state drugs distribution centre to aid the speedy equipment of hospitals with needed drugs.

Others are upgrading of the radiology units in the five general hospitals as well as registration of 72 private health services and closure of 66 facilities due to failure to comply with the regulatory guidelines.

There is therefore the urgent need to keep the pace in the provision of health facilities in the FCT. A situation whereby the residents of the FCT have to travel to other states and abroad for medical tourism leaves a lot to be desired in a country that is as endowed as Nigeria. Our reputation is always at stake because the FCT mirrors our standards in almost all facets of life in our country.

 It is sad that a city that is well endowed as the FCT is ranked very low in the provision of health services and this is a clarion call on the FCT administration to immediately improve the pace of developments in the health sector.

It is however gratifying to acknowledge that the authorities have conceived a proper implementation strategy for the FCT which involves a road map strategy that will make the residents witness in a short time improvements in the administration of the health sector to curb incidences of medical tourism and in the long term, making Abuja a city with one of the best health centres in the world.

For now, the FCT administration should be commended for its giant strides in the implementation of the National Health Care Act passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the president as a deliberate law to incentivise the provision of heath and medical infrastructure in the country.

The implementation has potentially improved the health sector by improving the practice of health professionals in the FCT. The minister has approved the coverage of the National Health Insurance to cover all and sundry. He sees it as the only way the mantra of health for all can be achieved.

Musa Musawa,

Abuja

Related Articles