In Akwa Ibom: N41B state specialist hospital shut down as government disagrees with management

the multi-million dollar hospital was shut down in September 2017 after its private managers, Cardiocare Medical Services Ltd, reportedly terminated their contract.

The Ibom Specialist Hospital valued at N41 billion in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has been shut down over disagreement between the state government and the management.

Premium Times reports that the 'world class' hospital has been shut down barely two years after it was built and commissioned by the administration of ex-governor Godswill Akpabio.

According to the report, the multi-million dollar hospital was shut down in September 2017 after its private managers, Cardiocare Medical Services Ltd, reportedly terminated their contract with the state government and withdrew from the facility.

The Ibom Specialist Hospital boasts of foreigners, mostly Indians, as a larger percentage of the health workers and was tagged one of the best legacies of the ex-governor.

Health commissioner's reaction

Speaking on the closure of the specialist hospital, the Commissioner for Health in the state, Dominic Ukpong, confirmed the report while accusing the private managers of poor management.

Ukpong, a medical doctor, admitted that there was a disagreement between the state government and Cardiocare Ltd over the funding of the Ibom Specialist Hospital.

 

He said: “The administration of the hospital, in my opinion, has not been satisfactory.

“Their excuses have been that government didn’t meet its own part of the obligation. But I am a witness to the huge amount of money the government has given to the service provider to run the hospital. And we haven’t had much to show for it.”

Continuing, the commissioner said: “Apart from the fact that the state government was giving diesel free to their quarters, I remember that at some point the state government gave N250 million to them (Cardiocare), at their request, which they said they wanted to use to pay salaries.

“As soon as they were given the money they came and said that that was for arrears. They came back for more money.

“The state government has given them N50 million, also on request.

“They asked that the government should be paying them N30 million monthly for them to pay salaries to some consultants, especially the neurosurgeon. We gave them the money.”

The Akpabio intervention

It was also gathered that the ex-governor, Akpabio, had intervened in the disagreement between the government and the private managers around June 2017.

To this end, the Senate Minority Leader mediated in a meeting between the state government and Cardiocare.

However, Ukpong said that Cardiocare failed to honour any of the agreement reached at the meeting, among which was that the company should present to the state government a price-list of the services the hospital was rendering.

“You know people were complaining about the high cost of getting medical services there, and we wanted to make sure that our people had access to the medical care offered in the facility,” he said.

Ukpong also disclosed that Cardiocare had insisted that they were scaling down the hospital operation because of lack of funds, but that the company refused to present a proposal for it to the government as agreed in the meeting.

The commissioner said the government released N180 million to Cardiocare after the meeting that was mediated by Mr. Akpabio and as soon as the managers got the cash, they withdrew from the facility.

Uyo Church Collapse building victims' treatment

The Health commissioner was quick to defend the state saying that the state government gave N180 million to Cardiocare Ltd as part payment meant for the treatment of the victims of the Reigners’ Bible Church collapse.

“They gave me an outrageous bill which I couldn’t agree with as a doctor,” he said.

“They were asking for N294 million for 300 out-patients and about 70-something in-patients.

“The hospital was complaining about money before the church incident. So, let nobody use that incident as an excuse,” he said.

The commissioner said the agreement between the state government and Cardiocare Ltd was done clearly in favour of the latter, adding that his office, for instance, didn’t have any supervisory role in the entire arrangement.

Ukpong also said he was not aware that the hospital managers ever paid any money to the state government, despite the agreement stipulating that they would be paying some revenues to the government.

SOURCE - PULSE.NG posted by Campus94