The National Hospital, Abuja is working towards establishing a national medical university with the hospital being its teaching hospital, Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof. Muhammad Raji Mahmud has said.
He made the disclosure Monday in Abuja while briefing newsmen as part of activities to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the hospital.
He said the aim was to bring the National Hospital to its rightful position as the apex hospital in Nigeria.
He said, “The target is to ensure citizens have the best top notch care in Nigeria and to also attract clients from West/ Sub-Saharan Africa and to curb brain drain.”
Prof. Raji said the hospital plans to complete a 200 bed ward extension, complete digitalisation of all systems and processes, establish a multi-clinic and research lab complex and a neurosciences institute among others.
He noted that the hospital had in the last 25 years achieved a lot and is poised to achieve more if given the right incentive and provided with the enabling environment.
He said the hospital, which commenced with a staff strength of 400 in 1999 currently has a staff strength of 2,300 permanent staff; rose from 200 to 450 beds, and has specialised services and facilities such as intensive care units, cold chain facility, cancer treatment machines, in-vitro fertilisation services, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machine, psychiatry, and cardio thoracic surgery to mention a few.
The CMD said the major challenge facing the hospital is paucity of funds to carry out its routine activities and complete ongoing projects, which were suspended due to lack of funds/ budgetary provision.
He said other challenges are inadequate manpower occasioned by brain drain of medical staff seeking greener pastures abroad, need for separate budget lines for the trauma centre and payment of outsourced services such as cleaning and security among others.
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