- NewsRescue comment: this is reminiscent of Buhari’s first appearance in the 80’s where he was renowned for crippling the medical profession including by canceling doctors’ training trips abroad.
- Sick Buhari jets abroad for medical care
Shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari came into office just before the end of May in 2015, he dissolved the boards of federal parastatals.
The action was not unusual of a new administration. But close to two years after, the vacancies created by the dissolution of the boards are yet to be filled, showing a pattern of lethargy in decision making for which the president has received widespread criticism.
The delay by the federal government in appointing Chief Medical Directors, CMDs, to run some tertiary health institutions across the country is generating mixed reactions among health professionals and stakeholders in the sector.
Currently, out of the 52 tertiary health centres across the country, about 20 have no CMDs. These institutions have been run by interim heads for between six months to two years, against the provision of the Acts that established them.
The establishment Acts do not envisage that any of them would be run by interim head beyond six months at a time. Health centres caught in this breach of law include psychiatric hospitals, Federal Medical Centres and Teaching Hospitals across the country.
Some of the affected ones are Federal Medical Centres in Ido Ekiti, Abeokuta, Asaba, Lagos, Owerri, Owo; Federal Teaching Hospitals in Abuja, Kano and Maiduguri; and Pschychiatric hospitals in Sokoto, Maiduguri, Calabar, Lagos; Birni-kudu, Uselu, among others.
In a telephone interview with Premium Times, the spokesperson for Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Segun Orisajo, confirmed that the head of the institution has been holding the office in acting capacity since June 20, 2016. But he said this has not in any noticeable way affected the activities and smooth running of the institution. Read full in PremiumTimes
