Bayo Alabira
A gynaecologist at Rashid Shekoni Specialist Hospital, Dutse, in Jigawa state, Dr. Abba Ahmed Danzomo, has called on the state government to monitor the free medical treatment for pregnant women and children less than five years with view to bringing sanity into the system.
He made the call in a paper entitled “Reducing Maternal Death: Where we are and the Way Forward” at a one-day sensitisation workshop on reporting maternal health organised for journalists by the Development Communication Network, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).
According to him, “there is a lot of insincerity and abuses on the programme by the officials mostly the pharmacist and nurses who handle the drugs and patients in the various hospitals.
He said: “The government has good intention on the policy, but bad attitude from officials of these hospitals in particular indirectly are sabotaging the government’s effort by over billing, given out the drugs to relations hence abusing opportunity.
“Drugs proposed for a month would finish in one week; even at that any drug above N100 would not be available in the pharmacies of all the hospitals.”
He said “in so many occasions the deserving patients do not benefit from the programme.”
