FCTA Begins Delivery of Medical Palliatives to Hospital Patients

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced implementation of an initiative aimed at lifting the financial burden borne by patients receiving treatment at hospitals in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

The initiative known as Medical Palliatives to Hospitals, ensures that patients receive medical treatment and medicines free in any of the General Hospitals visited by the FCTA Health team.

Speaking during commencement of the exercise at the Gwarinpa General Hospital in Abuja, Wednesday, the Mandate Secretary for Health Services, Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, who represented the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, said the initiative was being rolled out to further reduce the economic burden on the residents.

Fasawe said that government is not ignorant of the challenges Nigerians are currently going through.

Her words: “We have provided food palliative meant to reduce the burden and serve as a quick solution while the problem is finally addressed. The reason behind medical palliative is very simple.

“We are beginning to realize that a lot of our patients are coming in sick because the money they will use buy their medicine, they are using to buy food. There are limited resources to take care of competing demands.

“So, we wrote a memorandum to the Minister of FCT to approve the concept of provision of medical palliative which he graciously approved after being assured of a sustainability plan.”

The mandate secretary said that part of the plan is to deploy the health insurance scheme for the vulnerable which is funded with a percent of the country’s national budget to support the provision of the medical palliative.

“What we have done here today is a proof that this can work. It is sustainable and it is something that have come to stay.

The mandate secretary said that the medical palliative package included free medical treatment for patients who came to the Gwarinpa General Hospital in Abuja yesterday.

She also said that all the aspects of medical treatment including tests, prescribed medicines and even patients requiring surgery were to be paid for by the FCT administration.

Speaking shortly after a brief tour of various sections of the hospital where patients were receiving treatment, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said that as part of efforts to reinvigorate the health sector, the federal government has trained over 10,000 health workers across the states.

With regards to the provision of medical palliative, Pate said that federal government is encouraging the states and sub-nationals to cue into the programme and use it to further lift the masses out of the current economic burden.

“Today you saw some of the things government have been doing. The president is adopting several options to bring succour to the suffering Nigerian masses and what you are seeing today being carried out by the Minister of the FCT, Nyeson Wike, who is an example of that initiative,” he said.

The minister said that Nigeria has been battling the problem of acute malnutrition for some time now, but that the federal government recently set up a ministerial taskforce and mobilized additional resources to the tune of $30 million to support the nutrition intervention programme in the country.

On the situation with the cholera outbreak, the minister said that significant is progress is being recorded in reducing the occurrence.

He said that orders have been placed with Gavi International for the supply of cholera vaccines and that it will start arriving in a matter of weeks.

However, Pate advised that Nigerians should imbibe safety practices such as better sanitation, stop open defecation and drinking of contaminated water.