Prof Aaron C. Ojule is the Consultant Clinical Pathologist and Chief Medical Director of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital(UPTH).He is a Fellow Medical Clinical Pathologists(FMCPath),Member Nigerian Institute of Management(MNIM),as well as FHAN. Prof Ojule was recently on hand with our Executive Editor, Barth Ndubuwah at his office to shade light on some issues bothering on the operations of the UPTH. Here are excerpts from the interaction
Ques: Prof. people have been complaining of no drug syndrome at UPTH. What do you think is the cause?
It is impossible for any hospital to stock every drug and for a public hospital like ours or even pharmacy, it is not possible to stock all the drugs, even the common ones. What we do here at University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) is a drug revolving fund, where little money is being charged to enable us purchase as many drugs as possible, mostly the common drugs and other consumables. If we don’t charge money to replace these items, our hospitals will be reduced to a mere consulting clinics and lack of drugs syndrome will set in again bringing us to where we are coming from. We try as much as possible to attend to every patient that comes to the hospital in line with the transformational agenda of the Federal Government. The fact therefore remains that we carry out primary, secondary and tertiary medical services to our people, bearing in mind that the Federal Government (FG) has a pact with the people on providing social services and that we must actualize.
Ques: As a tertiary hospital are you supposed to attend to all categories of patients? Don’t you think it has confirmed the allegation that our primary and secondary health sectors are dead?
It is not in my place to say whether the primary and secondary sectors in the country are functional, all I know is that here at UPTH we attend to every patient irrespective of ailment
As a tertiary hospital the proper thing would have been for us to attend to only patients with referral letters and the letters must be to specialists, but we are not doing that, therefore even if you come here with cough and catarrh there is a doctor that will attend to you. What people are complaining of is that they spend a long time before being attended to and because of the number of out-patients that visit the hospital on daily basis and for proper documentation, we cannot attend to everybody at the same time, people must learn to be patient when they come to the hospital. After all, people go to court for a case and spend the whole day and at times the case is not heard, is it to spend some hours in the hospital and get proper treatment that people complain about? The process must be thorough to check fraud and all that.
Ques: Roughly how many patients does the hospital see in a day?
We attend to over one thousand medical cases in the out-patients department daily.
The hospital has expanded from 500 beds when I assumed duties to about 750 beds and we might reach a thousand in the near future.
Ques: Prof what are your major challenges in the course of running this hospital as the Chief Medical Director of UPTH?
Apart from funds, security is still a major challenge to us. You must have heard that recently our doctors went on strike to protest the abduction of one of our female doctors. Our attitude to work is yet another big challenge, a situation where somebody who has been employed to do a job is never found on his duty post when he is supposed to be there, it is not peculiar to the medical profession alone, all of us are guilty of this offence. The PHCN, environmental managers, transporters including the health sector are not spared in this problem, but we are working on it. We must therefore change our attitude to work in the interest of the country and all of us.
Ques: What is the position of the victims of the recent Okogbe petroleum tanker fire disaster? Have they been discharged or flown abroad for further treatments as rumoured?
We still have about nine of the Okogbe victims with us and they are doing very well. Why must we take people overseas for treatment, why can’t we develop our hospitals to meet the medical challenges. The Federal Government(FG), State Government ,National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA) and the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC) have all tried to provide money to buy expensive drugs to treat the victims, some of them with 75%,65% degree burns. We must be very grateful to the FG and all the agencies that contributed to save the lives of these our brothers. In fact, immediately the incident happened, the Minister of Health sent a high powered delegation to the hospital to assess the situation, they have been very supportive since then.
I do not subscribe to flying people abroad for every little treatment. Why can’t our hospitals be equipped for comprehensive treatment. The Okogbe fire victims are doing very well.
If we are to charge patients according to the services rendered they cannot afford it, but because the FG subsidizes the charges, otherwise it would have been very difficult.
Ques: There is an allegation that drugs donated by NGOs and other international agencies are being diverted to private hospitals and pharmacies?
There is no truth in the allegation that drugs meant for the treatment of patients in the hospital are being diverted to private clinics and pharmacies. I challenge those peddling such rumour to come up with evidence showing the type of drugs, the donor agency and where such drugs were diverted to. I assure you that anybody found culpable in such crime will face the full weight of the law. I have implicit confidence in the personnel manning the pharmaceutical department of this hospital. They are men and women of high integrity.
Ques: What is your advice generally to your staff and Nigerians?
Everyone of us has a role to play to make society better, if you are given a responsibility to do, discharge it to the best of your ability, be sincere to yourself, God and one another. If we all do our best the society will be better, there will be constant light, water ,hospitals will run well instead of waiting for God to come down and do it for us.
previous post
