When the Billiri General Hospital in Gombe State was established by the administration of former Governor Muhammad Danjuma Goje and commissioned on March 14, 2006 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, qualified medical doctors and other health care workers were posted to the facility to provide quality services to residents of the community and its environs.
The hospital has an administration block, general outpatient department, accident and emergency unit, nursing and pharmacy units, laboratories, surgical and medical wards for both male and female patients, and paediatric ward, among others.
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It was meant to serve the 10 wards that makeup Billiri Local Government Area, but people from other places, such as Boh, the headquarters of Shongom Local Government Area, also frequented the hospital, especially as the cost of good health care services there were said to be relatively low.
But due to lack of proper maintenance, the fortune of the 16-year-old hospital began to decline and some of its equipment started decaying.
A resident of the community told Daily Trust on Sunday that the facility has decayed so much that its beddings stink, a situation that forces some in-patients and their relatives to sometimes sleep on bare floor to avoid possibly contracting diseases other than what brought them to the hospital.
Non-availability of essential drugs and other basic items also became frequent, forcing people to stay away from the hospital.
Decayed infrastructure, paucity of medical equipment, lack of drugs and inadequate qualified personnel to man the facility have almost turned the once vibrant hospital to a mere consulting clinic, with few people now patronising it.
Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that the unfortunate development has forced even the health care workers to seek for transfer to other places with better working condition.
When our correspondent visited the hospital, the General Outpatient Department (GOPD), which is the first point of call to new patients, was totally deserted.
The Accident and Emergency Unit was also empty. It was gathered that in the case of any emergency, patients have to buy basic things as cotton wool and syringe before they could be attended to.
Also, only handful of in-patients were on admission in the hospital at the time of the visit, with only few health workers sitting idle in poorly ventilated offices and other wards of the hospital.
During the visit, it was discovered that the vast land at the western part of the hospital has been turned to farmlands, likely by staff of the hospital. For instance, a flourishing groundnut farm is sandwich within the precinct of the wards between the GOPD and the male ward.
To compound the already worrisome situation at the hospital, at the onset of the rainy season in April this year, a heavy windstorm destroyed the roof of the female medical and surgical wards, forcing the hospital management to move female patients to the male ward.
“It is a very weird situation because there is no privacy as both female patients and their relatives now share toilets, bathrooms and other facilities with the male,” a staff member of the hospital lamented.
The staff, who craved anonymity, said that at present, there are only three medical doctors serving the whole hospital, which is designated as secondary health care facility and a referral centre for several primary health care centres in the local government area.
“Out of the three doctors, one was also transferred to Kaltungo General Hospital, the other one is on in-service; therefore, he is here because of the strike. So, only the medical director can be said to be permanently on duty.
“We have less than 20 nurses, with 17 Community Health Extension Workers and 11 environmentalists. These are the only permanent staff that literally man the hospital,” he said.
He added that the hospital heavily relied on casual workers who run shift. He alleged that health attendants, some of them with secondary school certificates, were in charge of some critical units like the eye clinic.
Despite being a general hospital, “there is no dental or ear. People with such ailments have to visit Kaltungo or Kumo, a distance of over 10 kilometres each,” he said.
He also said that apart from the decayed equipment and infrastructure, shortage or lack of adequate manpower is another problem affecting the smooth running of the hospital.
“People are retiring and they are not being replaced. Also, most of the newly posted nurses to the hospital hardly stay beyond three months and they will seek transfer and leave. This is partly due to poor condition of the hospital and lack of basic equipment to work with,” he further said.
He added that lack of promotion and implementation of promotion discouraged many people from putting in their best. “I was issued with a promotion letter since 2020, but it was not implemented, and I will be due for my next promotion in 2023,” he said.
A teacher and resident of Billiri, David Mela, said that most of the times they would prefer to attend private health care centres or patronise over-the-counter medicine stores for their medications.
“There was a time I took my neighbour’s wife to the hospital for delivery, when we reached, I was asked to buy simple items like hand gloves and cotton wool before they could attend to her,” he alleged.
Mela added that people of Billiri felt neglected by the government for allowing a hospital that serves thousands of residents to collapse, “without any visible effort to salvage it.”
He said, “Our numerous calls to the authorities in Gombe seem to be neglected. Although some officials of the state Ministry of Health have visited the hospital, we are yet to see any concrete action taken.”
Lawmaker seeks closure of the hospital
Concerned by the terrible situation of the hospital, a lawmaker representing Billiri West in the Gombe State House of Assembly, Mr Tukfukut Memei Kardi, called for the closure of the facility for total renovation and overhaul.
In a letter he personally signed and addressed to Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, Kardi lamented that lack adequate equipment at the hospital has turned it into a mere consulting clinic or near death chamber.
“The Billiri General Hospital is dilapidated, with structures almost collapsing or even non-existent. Consequently, the facility is less patronised or even perceived as a sort of abandoned structure.
“I am, therefore, pleading that you consider closing the hospital temporarily to pave way for urgent re-structuring and re-equipping, while services move to the Tal Cottage Hospital pending the renovation,” the lawmaker stated in the letter, which was obtained by Daily Trust on Sunday.
Hospital management keeps mum
When contacted, officials of the hospital declined to speak on the matter. One of them claimed that they were directed not to speak to the press over the poor condition of the facility.
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Ismaila Uba Misilli, the Director of Press Affairs to Governor Yahaya, said the poor condition of the hospital was part of the rots inherited from past administrations in the state.
He said the administration of Yahaya had already commenced renovation and reconstruction of three general hospitals in Bajoga, Kaltungo and Kumo respectively across the three senatorial districts of the state.
“When this administration took over in 2019, even the Gombe Specialist Hospital in the state capital had decayed and on the verge of collapse. But within one year in office, the hospital was totally overhauled and now wears a new look.
“Also, there is an ongoing reconstruction of three hospitals in each of the three senatorial districts of the state. The Kumo General Hospital in Akko Local Government Area in Gombe central is undergoing reconstruction, while renovation is ongoing at the Bajoga General Hospital in Funakaye Local Government for Gombe North. At the same time, the Kaltungo General Hospital in Kaltungo Local Government for Gombe South is also undergoing renovation. All will soon be completed,” Misilli said.
He added that the rot in the state’s health sector accumulated over the years due to neglect by previous administrations, and it would not be corrected overnight.
“These problems are as a result of several years of neglect. But we are working hard to change the narrative.
“It will interest you to know that at least one primary health care centre was renovated and equipped in each of the 114 political wards across the 11 local government areas of the state,” he added.
He appealed for understanding from residents of Billiri and other local government areas with similar issues, saying the Yahaya administration was aware and working towards addressing them.
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