- * Hospital Environment, Medical Facilities In Fifty And Deplorable Condition
Patients Contract Strange Ailments After Treatment Of Initial Medical Problems
Gov Ishaku's Government Accused Of Neglect, As Senior Doctors Abandon Work
Taraba Citizens Cry Out For Help!
By Nahum Sule (Taraba State Correspondent, in Jalingo)
Doctors at the Taraba state Specialist hospital in Jalingo, have declared that the hospital may soon become a diseases contracting center for who ever visits or go for medical check there, if the poor environmental condition of the hospital is not attended to.
They decried that the institution's poor environmental condition was no longer healthy for mankind, going by the current unusual diseases emanating from the hospital.
Some senior doctors of the hospital who drew the attention of NIGERIAN NEWSLEADER Correspondent to the situation but pleaded not be mentioned in the news, lamented that many patients were being re-admitted for strange illnesses after treating the initial situation that brought them to the hospital.
They said the strange illnesses have been discovered to be caused by poor environmental hygiene, which, according them, was affecting the hospital due to non-release of running cost to the institution by the Taraba state government for nearly three years, coupled with lack of other logistics attention.
"Our hospital, the Taraba State Specialist is no longer healthy for anyone coming here. Our internal environment is poor and unhealthy for human kind. We have not received running cost for nearly three years now to manage the place and many sensitive points of the hospital that need regular maintenance are very poor.
"The unhealthy condition of the hospital is introducing us to strange illnesses daily. Any patient we brought to the hospital, after treatment, he or she will start feeling another strange illness that mostly compel us to transfer the patient to either the Federal Medical Center or any of the better hospitals in Nigeria.
"We have had countless of such cases. Our findings has proven that the poor environmental condition of our hospital is the reason behind the strange illnesses been emanated here.
"We wonder why governor Darius Ishaku has chosen to abandon a sensitive institution like this hospital. We reliably gathered that N200,000,000 loan has been collected in the name of the hospital by the governor some time last year 2021 after the United Bank for Africa UBA disapproved a loan in the name of Taraba State University, Jalingo, on the ground that the university was having over N150,000,000 pending loan obtained in 2019 and 2021, and surety by the state government.
"You will not like to bring any of your sick relation here if we take you round the sensitive points of this hospital that we are talking about. We are being owed salaries as doctors. We can't remember when last cleaners here were paid and even water has stopped running through the hospital due to reasons we are ashamed to give you.
"Majority of our senior doctors are now feeling discouraged to work due to the poor working environment of the hospital. The only sensitive unit of the hospital that is at least looking decent is the laboratory.
"We want to declare to the notice of citizens that if the poor situation is not attended to, Taraba State Specialist hospital would soon become a disease contracting center" the doctors decried.
When contacted, the Taraba State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Innocent Vakkai refered our correspondent to the Chief Medical Director of the hospital. Dr. Vakkai said the CMD was in a better position to explain why the hospital is in such situation.
But when visited in his office, the CMD, Dr. Maiangwa Alex, declined to speak on the matter.
All efforts to get pictures of the affected areas were resisted by the hospital management. NNL.
