By Emmanuel Onwusoro
The financial intervention by the Ekiti State government to the State University Teaching Hospital, EKSUTH , Ado-Ekiti, has been described as a gesture that can reduce the rate at which brain-drain is taking a toll at the tertiary health institution.
The chairman, Association of Resident Doctors, EKSUTH branch, Dr Famous Adeyemi advanced this at a media briefing on the state of affairs at the hospital. The configuration of members at the briefing cut across the various health workers’ unions at the hospital who converged on the platform of EKSUTH Inter-Allied Forum represented by leaders of different unions.
Setting the tone, Dr Adeyemi remarked, “we are here because we need to let members of the public know about the recent happenings in EKSUTH. Many people have been following us on many developments that have been happening in this hospital and in Ekiti state, especially the very recent one that the Ekiti state governor has in his magnanimity increased our subvention from N261,000,000 to N411,000,000”.
He explained that the gesture will improve the welfare of members of staff and raise the level of infrastructural development at EKSUTH. According to the medical practitioner, the lifeline will enable them deliver quality health-care services to members of the public. This, he anchored on the popular saying that, “health is wealth”. He underscored the point that without adequate and quality healthcare to members of the public, it will be difficult for the people of Ekiti to go about their work and daily activities as it necessary.
The chairman deplored a situation where everybody cannot afford what he called the ‘ very expensive private health services that are available over here in Nigeria’. He reiterated that the state government in its magnanimity is trying to bring health care system closer to the people, and it can only do this by improving on the welfare of the health workers, while the facilities at the hospital equally have to be improved.
He pointed out that for sometime, the hospital had been battling with the challenges of two types of brain-drain. “We are having challenges with international brain-drain, in which the health care workers have been travelling abroad to seek greener pastures. The doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists among others. Also the local brain-drain, in which our health workers are leaving for federal health institutions because of the disparity in the pay of people working at the federal health institutions”.
He added that people working at the state tertiary health institutions try to move to federal health institutions, and this has continued to contract the workforce in the teaching hospital. And this is giving them a lot of work overload. Other challenges are inadequate hands to attend to the teeming population of the patients that are coming to the hospital.
But doctor Adeyemi maintained that with the intervention from the state government, they will be able to do more, believing that there is opportunity to give Ekiti people the needed care. According to him, “though we are not there yet, but there are still many more things to do. As we talk, we have not been able to partake in the wage award that was given to the members of the core civil servants in the state, and there are many more emoluments we have not been able to partake in yet”.
He revealed that there are still many more facilities that are needed in EKSUTH community, such as amenity wards, and other modern facilities to work with. Hence, an appeal to the state government to come to their aid.
Other union leaders in their contributions commended governor Oyebanji for his magnanimity.
