Gov. Zulum Meets Health Workers Collecting Money in a Surprise Visit

Gov. Zulum on supervision

From  JOE Hemba

 In his characteristics of making surprise official visits to check excesses of government officials, Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno today in one of such visits discovered another set of health workers extorting money from patients for services meant to be provided free of charge.

 Acting on intel, the governor took a 10 seater bus without any siren where he stormed the Gwange II Primary Healthcare in Maiduguri metropolis without notice and discovered that some unscrupulous health officials are collecting N8,000 to N10,000 from patients for services meant to be provided free of charge.

IMPACTONLINENIGERIA  reports that Gov. Zulum has in the past engaged in similar visits ranging from schools, public offices, hospitals etc.

 The governor who was joined on the mission with the state commissioner for Health expressed his displeasure and ordered a full investigation into the matter.

 The disappointed governor also noted that the attitude of the officials of the healthcare centre has made the facility to be deserted because, the people cannot afford to pay such amount of money for common ailments like malaria. 

 “The staff we met here (at Gwange II, PHC) confirmed that they use to collect between N8,000 to N10,000 from patients to treat malaria. In fact they have turned this Government health centre to a private hospital, and this is why the centre has been deserted by people who mostly do not have the money to access services here. The workers just collect money and put it in their pockets”, unhappy Zulum said.

Gov. Zulum checking records in one of the primary healthcare

 The Governor directed the Borno State Primary Healthcare Agency to thoroughly investigate, identify all the culprits and take appropriate disciplinary actions.

 Zulum was also sad that the same primary healthcare centre had only one medical staff on ground to attend to patients, despite having 29 health workers on Government pay roll. 

 “You can imagine that at 2:00pm, this primary healthcare centre we built and fully equipped is empty (because of extortion and without medical staff). This level of impunity cannot be tolerated. The earlier we address it, the better for all of us” Zulum queried. 

 At a sister primary healthcare centre in another location within Gwange I, Gov. Zulum was happy that the situation was the opposite of what he saw from his first point of call. At the Gwange I healthcare centre, medical workers on ground attending to patients without extorting them and they received the governor’s commendations.

IMPACTONLINENIGERIA  checks revealed that Zulum administration has constructed over 75 primary healthcare centers, built and renovated dozens of general hospitals and employed close to 600 medical workers of different categories, and is also building houses for doctors and nurses to inspire good medical services to citizens.

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