Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The management of NISA Group, operators of the Public-Private-Partnership agreement at the Garki Hospital in Abuja has disclosed that it spent N10 billion to sustain payment of its workers’ salaries in the last 15 years.
The group whose 15-year PPP concession agreement with the Federal Capital Territory administration, original owners of the Garki General Hospital has expired, said it had made significant progress in improving on the equipment and healthcare services at the hospital since it took over operations.
Speaking in an interview with journalists in his office over the weekend, the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Adamu Onu, said apart from ensuring that there were no disruptions of service by strike, the hospital has trained more than 18 consultants and over 180 House Officers.
“Like I said, during these 15 years, the concession has saved the government a whole lot of money, billions of naira. At least I know that in the last 15 years, we have spent over N10 billion in staff salaries alone, not to talk of how much we have invested in training or on equipment whereby people keep coming to have their tests done, get their results and treatment. We have saved government a whole lot of money,” he said.
“We have run completely as PPP arrangement at no cost to the government because government had not provided any subvention for this period of 15 years. We have attended to patients non-stop and we had no strike.
“We have also trained a number of doctors. As at today, we have trained over 18 consultants. We have trained over 180 House Officers and so we have continued to provide services since this period of time.
“We have attended to more than two million patients in the hospital. We have also done a number of Kidney transplant, a number of open heart surgeries and while lot of other procedures as well. We have been given patients treatment at an accessible and affordable rate,” he said.
When asked about the implications of the expiration of the PPP deal and the way forward, the NISA boss said everything was in the hands of the FCT administration to decide on what happens next.
“We had an agreement for 25 years and it has come to an end and so it’s left for the government to decide what it wants to do. We do not contest that; it is a concession agreement that has known terms. But on our part we hope that the administration will be able to look at what has happened here so far, take note of the successes, take note of how it has saved the government huge amount of resources because like I have already pointed out this place has been on for 15 years without interruption with no single subvention from government.
“So that is a huge valuable lesson not to talk how much we have spent investing in equipment whereby people were able to come and have their tests done and receive their results,” he added.
On what impact the private sector management had made in the operations of the hospital facility, the NISA Chief Executive said a lot of savings had been made for government just as the deal has thought some lessons on how to drive public- private- partnership the n the health sector.
“So we have saved government a whole lot of money. It is left for the government to decide what to do and we are not going to dictate government what to do but our hope is that this PPP which is acclaimed not just within the country but also outside the country can offers us lessons that the government can build upon in improving access to health care for Nigerians as a whole,” he said.
Onu added that before the commencement of the PPP arrangement in 2007, facilities at the hospital were virtually obsolete following a six months shutdown.
“This hospital has been operating as a Public-Private-Partnership for the past 15 years without interruption. Those who have been in the FCT for a long time know that prior to the concessioning of this hospital that this place was basically empty and was not functioning at all. It has been closed down for like six years before it was now concessioned out in 2007 and until that time,
“Again like I said, the concession has a timeframe. I had said that it was concessioned for 15 years and that 15 years has come to an end. Where we go from here is up to the government, they are the ones that will decide how we are going to proceed but like you likely pointed out every single staff you see working here was employed under the PPP by NISA.
“There is no government staff with us and in the same vein, every single equipment that we use here to provide treatment is also brought in by NISA Premier Hospital. So if you go to ICU and you look at our equipment, look at our dialysis machine, in the CT scanning laboratory everything, he said.
On the fate of House Officers on Residency training programme if the PPP agreement ends, he said their programme would be truncated.
“However I am sure we will have a conversation with the FCT on the way forward,” he said.
Onu also spoke on what the management intends to do going forward, saying NISA would wait for the FCT to say what it intends to do.
