Why there are no drugs in State House Clinic’

The large number of people taking free treatment at the State House Clinic is responsible for the lack of drugs at the hospital, Permanent Secretary State House Jala Arabi has said.

This is contained in the report on the Clinic he submitted to the House of Representatives committee looking into the alarm on the poor state of the hospital raised by Wife of the President Mrs Aisha Buhari.



The Hon. Magaji Aliyu-headed ad-hoc committee had requested the Ministry of Health and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to provide detailed account of the State House Clinic.

The members expressed concern over the report presented by Arabi that out of 329 personnel working in the State House Clinic, 47 non-core medical personnel for several years illegally collected call-duty allowances.

According to him, some doctors sponsored by the State House on Residency Programmes (usually 2 years), got their call duty allowances paid “even though they are no longer performing call duties at the medical Centre.”

He said despite their failure to enlist on the State House Clinic’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), 80 per cent of the State House workers and their spouses are enjoying free medical services, at the expense of the government

Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire and the FCT Health Secretary, Mrs Amanda Pam told the committee that the state House clinic is not directly under the Ministry of Health and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) admnistration.

Aliyu said:
 “The summary of the whole thing is that the clinic is just there, it is not supervised and is not under anybody.
“The Ministry of Health and FCT said they are not aware, meaning the hospital is just there.. I want all information on the clinic. We can’t afford to risk the life of Mr. President and somebody should be responsible.”
Ehanire said: “The State House Clinic is not directly under my ministry. I don’t know who is directly in-charge. I didn’t say that it is not under anybody, may be under the FCT.
“It is not unusual that the clinic is not under the ministry, this is also applicable in some states. This is what we met on ground.
“I am not aware of the status of the training of the doctors practicing in the clinic. The choice of who heads the clinic lies on the President. It is the prerogative of the President.”
He added: the Clinic is supposed to be operated along regular hospitals.

The Nation