Reps to probe poor condition of State House Clinic

The House of Representatives has asked an ad-hoc committee to investigate the condition of the State House Clinic, Abuja, and alleged irregular deductions from the salaries and allowances of the staff.

This house set up the committee after adopting a motion raised by Henry Archibong (PDP-Akwa Ibom) at the plenary on Thursday.

Mr. Archibong alleged that despite huge budgetary allocations, the clinic lacks necessary facilities, drugs and even such as syringes.

He was echoing a complaint earlier made on Monday by the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha, who criticised the management of the facility.

“In the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Appropriation Acts, the Clinic was allocated the sum of ₦3.94 billion, ₦3.87 billion and ₦3.2 billion respectively, for upgrading and provision of necessary drugs and equipment,” Mr. Archibong said.

He also alleged that medical doctors working at the Clinic were complaining over alleged illegal deductions from their salaries and allowances by the Management since April 2017, without any official explanation.

Mrs. Buhari, at a stakeholder’s meeting at the State House on Reproductive, Maternal, Nutrition, Child Advocacy and Health and Nutrition (RMNCAHN), said she was unable to access health care at the Clinic and had to go to a private facility run by foreigners.

“I called the Aso Clinic to find out if they have an X-Ray machine, they said it’s not working”

“In the end I had to go to a hospital owned and operated by foreigners 100 per cent”

“There is a budget for the Hospital and if you go there now, you will see a number of constructions going on but they don’t have a single syringe there.”

“What is the purpose of the buildings if there are no equipment there to work with?”

“You can imagine what happens across the states to governors wives if this will happen to me in Abuja,” she said.

Mrs. Buhari’s comments also came a few days after her daughter, Zahra, took to her Instagram page to accuse the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, of allegedly failing to provide even Paracetamol tablets at the clinic despite a budget of N3 billion for provision of drugs at the hospital.