Three hospitals in Abuja have secured full accreditation from the National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria and West African College of Physicians for post graduate residency.
They are the general hospitals owned by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) located in Maitama, Wuse and Asokoro.
The FCT Acting Secretary of Health, Mrs. Grace Achu-Odey, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja, that the hospitals were accorded full accreditation for residency training in obstetrics and gynaecology for five years with effect from July, 2016.
“We secured accreditation from the National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria and West African College of Physicians for post graduate residency training in family medicine to enhance capacity building and improve quality of care.
“With the challenges in finances, it is not easy to train medical officers up to the specialist level, so for us to achieve that, it is a plus for us. “It means that we would have our doctors carrying out their training within our facilities, while providing services to the populace of the FCT,’’ she said.
They recorded a 100 per cent success in part one fellowship examination of the West African Post Graduate Medical Colleges through its own home-grown residency programme producing six senior registrars in the process.
“Another issue worthy of note was the distribution of anti-malaria drugs to Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), in the month of April, 2016. Presently, there is availability of anti-malaria drugs in the PHCs.
“The Health and Human Services Secretariat has procured and distributed drugs worth N300 million to its health facilities across the six area councils in the Territory between Jan. and Dec. 2016,’’ she added.
Though she acknowledged the efforts of the secretariat in drugs procurement and distribution, Achu-Odey said it was not sufficient for the number of hospitals in the FCT.
She said, however, work is in progress towards procuring drugs in bulk from pharmaceutical companies to meet the needs of primary and secondary health facilities.
On immunisation, Achu-Odey said, the National Immunisation-plus Days were carried out from Feb. 27 to March 1; and from April 10 to 13, 2016 with the coverage of between 122 and 125 per cent.”
She said that a total of 517 applications were received by Pharmacy Department from pharmacists seeking for renewal of their licenses.
“The Department of Pharmaceutical Services coordinates the activity of pharmacies in the FCT and is able to generate revenue for the FCTA. “Last year, the department was able to generate about N1.4 million,’’ she added.
In the area of regulating private health facilities, the acting secretary told NAN that out of a total of 72 private health facilities, 66 were closed down in 2016 by the Private Health Committee.
“This is because of issues bordering on prescribed standard of operation, and the committee also generated over N45 million during the period.
“When we monitor these health facilities, we vent and re-vent (register and renew them); and those who live up to standard were re-licensed for the year. “So they pay their mandatory fees, while those that could not meet the required standard were either sanctioned or closed down,’’ she said.
Achu-Odey noted that some of the sanctions imposed include payment of fines, through which the secretariat was able to generate N45 million for the FCTA.
On HIV/AIDS, the acting secretary affirmed that a total of 265 HIV screening centres were established within the six area councils of the FCT.
She explained that a total of 14, 569 individuals both female and male tested positive to HIV in the year under review.
“And a total of 2,632 pregnant women who were HIV positive received the Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for prevention of mother to child transmission,’’ she said.
Source – NAN
