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Adamawa Healthcare Delivery: The Howard University Visitors By Babayola Toungo
There was a news item in the Daily Trust of Monday July 31st, 2006 to the effect that physicians from the Howard University in the United States treated 10,000 patients and performed surgery on 300 others in Adamawa State within a period of two weeks. This may sound laudable as part of the state government’s effort in providing qualitative healthcare to the people of the state. But then I asked myself certain questions that I believe should have been made public by the authorities as part of the news item. Issues like the number of the physicians who were able to perform this super human feat by attending to 10,000 patients and operating on another 300, all within the space of two weeks; also of concern to me is the amount of money expended to achieve this.
I know both the Howard University authorities and the people of Adamawa state will very much like to know the cost implication of this two weeks wonder because the rumours making the rounds in Yola concerning the visit by the American physician led by a woman of Igbo extraction – Dr. Catherine Uzoma – is that the sum of N350 million was expended for the visit, whose main objective is supposed to be the provision of free healthcare services to the needy. When the rumour first surfaced, I refused to believe it but then the frequency with which it is repeated compelled me to write this article in order to alert the state government and the Howard University on this very dangerous rumour that has the potential of soiling the image of the University and putting a dampener on the state government’s laudable objectives. What I would like to ascertain is whether the University has a hand in fleecing the poor people of Adamawa, if the rumour is true. I have tried all possible permutations to understand how possible it is for the number of doctors that were said to have visited Adamawa from Howard to undertake surgical operations on 300 people and attend to 10,000 others all within the space of two weeks. They must be superhuman beings!
Provision of qualitative healthcare delivery is an important aspect of any government and whosoever initiated such a project must be lauded for this. But the government and its doctor collaborators should not be allowed to take the Adamawa people for a ride. It is a luxury for any government to expend N350million for some few visiting doctors, who to all intents and purposes might have just taken a ‘stroll around the park’. This is sheer madness no matter how you look at it. There are a thousand and one things that could be done with N350million in the health sector in Adamawa State that will be more beneficial to the people than bringing in a bunch of carpet baggers from the USA, who may have no compuction or empathy to the people they are meant to attend to beyond the exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar. If they are not miracle workers, there is no way anyone can convince me that they have seen and treated 10,000 patients and performed surgery on 300 others all within a two week period. What infrastructure did the doctors use to carry out their surgeries; which hospital did they utilise for this unheard of feat? Certainly not the Yola Specialist Hospital! Because there is no water or electricity, two elementary ingredients for any succesfull surgery.
I have had cause to write on the state of healthcare delivery in Adamawa State in the past. I have given instances of government failure to provide basic necessities in terms of consumables and equipment to the few hospitals operating in the state. I know the roofs have been changed and a new coat of paint applied on the walls, but beyond that, all we have is hollow shells that serve more as the final bus stop to many a patient who made the mistake of going to any “renovated/ rehabilitated” government hospital in Adamawa. I have had cause to visit the “rehabilitated” Ward 13 (Male Medical Ward) of the Yola Specialist Hospital. What I discovered there then was very appalling, to say the least. The medical personnel there were exposed to all kinds of diseases – Aids, Malaria, jaundice, etc. – because there were no gloves, no disinfectants, no detergent and of course no medicine for the patients. Electricity and water are luxuries that the hospital authorities cannot afford.
If it is true that the state government spent N350million for the visit of the Howard University Doctors, then it is very sad. This amount of money could have gone into the provision of water and electricity for all the five hospitals in the state. Part of it could go along way in providing other consumables to the hospitals. Basic equipment like X-ray machines, Oxygen tanks and even beds and beddings are alien to even the staff. To the average healthcare worker in Adamawa State N350million is a lot amount of money. At the time the Federal Medical Centre, Yola relocated to their permanent site, there was no single functional ambulance left at the Yola Specialist Hospital. How many ambulances can N350million provide? Because if it is difficult to get a functional ambulance at the Yola Specialist Hospital, what can one expect at the other hospitals located outside the state capital?
I don’t want to believe that the Howard University would knowingly lend its hard earned reputation to this 419. But if that may be the case, then the world should know. The Adamawa State government has failed woefully in the provision of basic healthcare to its citizens. The provision of equipment and consumables has never being a priority area for the government since most state functionaries travel abroad for routine and everyday medical ailment. If you are unlucky to have a patient at the Yola Specialist Hospital, the major hospital in the state capital, you must be prepared to provide your water needs and that of your patient. Same goes for electricity. Prescription medicine is a pipe dream.
Adamawa State is among the states in the north with a high number of doctors, nurses and other medical auxiliary staff. But lacking the tools of their profession and a conducive working environment, most choose to either leave the state or go to places like the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital or the nearby first class Gombe Referral Hospital. Those that can afford it open their private clinics and charge patients through the nose. If the state government is really interested in assisting the people get access to cheap medical care, they should equip tour hospitals and persuade our doctors in the “Diaspora” return home, not this one-off rip-off. Throwing away such huge amount of money in the name of “assisting” the poor is not our idea of assistance unless the government was out to “assist” Dr. Catherine Uzoma and Co.
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