The Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, Abuja has called for increased budgetary allocation and additional land to enable the hospital expand its services for the teeming population of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and its environs.
The Medical Director of the Centre, Prof Sa’ad Ahmed, made the call in Abuja when the House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions paid an oversight visit to the facility.
He said the hospital was suffering from manpower shortage due to brain drain , adding that this year alone, about 51 staff had left the hospital.
He said, “ It is biting, and it will continue to bite. We can talk about one-for-one replacement, but sometimes you cannot get that level of experience of the person that is leaving.
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“Currently, we are facing a manpower shortage in the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department.
“We equally have challenges in the department of neurology as we only have one consultant there, we run clinics once a week there. We also have the challenge in the cardiology department, and more people are coming for those services. In physiotherapy, about four or five people have left. Every department is affected.”
While calling on the committee to re-examine the report of the Health Sector Reform Committee on how to retain health workers in the country, he said the hospital was doing a lot to retain staff and reverse medical tourism.
The chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Health Institutions, Amos Magaji, commended the hospital for the innovations brought in so far, adding that the committee would do everything within its power to address the challenges facing the hospital.
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