Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, Abuja has appealed to the federal government for the allocation of additional land to the hospital to expand its services and accommodate more patients.
The chief medical director of the hospital, Prof Saad Ahmed, made the appeal during a visit by the Senate Committee on Health, led by its chairman, Senator Banigo Ipalibo, to the hospital in Abuja.
The visit by the committee was part of its oversight function to assess the state of the hospital and also to have a report of its challenges.
Addressing journalists, the CMD stated that while the hospital has all equipment it needs for the services it renders currently, it’s being limited by the lack of space.
“For equipment, I think we have enough equipment for the services that we give but we always say that we will require more equipment in order to expand. We cannot remain where we were two or three years ago. We want to move on and give more services to more Nigerians,” he said.
He said the consistent increase in the number of its outpatient demands for extra space, explaining that “In 2020 our outpatient clientele per month is about 5000 – 6000 per month. Currently we are battling with 20,000 to 22,000 per month. When you have increased in this outpatient you will know how stretched you will be in other areas.
“The hospital has just one chemotherapy suite and clinic for cancer. We need to have a bunker where we can put linear accelerators for treatment of cancer cases but as it is now we don’t have a place where we can put it safely because we are dealing with radiation.
“So, we are pleading if we can just have additional land space that is adjacent to us and given to us so that we can expand and give some of these services,” he added.
He also called for an upward review of budgetary allocations to the health sector in order to boost service delivery.
On her part, the committee chairman, Ipalibo Banigo, tasked the CMD on the need to have all necessary equipment and machines, in order to bring out the best.
She stated that there was a need for the hospital to have more than one MRI machine to enable the hospital to perform better.
The chairman also requested for the audit report of the hospital between 2021-2023, which the CMD promised to make available.
Banigo also stressed the need for the hospital to increase its internally generated revenue (IGR).
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